As XSEED goes, so goes the Wii
Long since abandoned by their makers, the PlayStation Portable and Nintendo Wii endure thanks to a select number of publishers that have kept the home fires burning. Among them is XSEED, the team behind localizing titles like The Last Story, Corpse Party: Book of Shadows, and the forthcoming Pandora’s Tower. Digital Trends recently sat down with XSEED’s vice president, Ken Berry, who spoke to the company’s attitude toward bringing games to consoles in their twilight hours.
“The PSP is unique in that it was so wildly successful in Japan,” Berry responded when asked why he stands by the portable. “This creates an abundance of great PSP games in Japan that don’t get localized for overseas, so if we find compelling content and can make the numbers work out somehow, even with somewhat low sales expectations, we’re willing to take the risk.”
The Wii is a different story, however, and those looking for XSEED to publish every strange Japanese game we’ve missed out on over the years are likely to be disappointed. “Pandora’s Tower will probably be our final Wii title,” Berry stated, explaining that it and The Last Story were “more of a special one (or two) time deal rather than any kind of trend.” Expected, but rather unfortunate news nonetheless. XSEED is just about the only company keeping the little machine alive, so this very well may be the last game to come to the system.
If you read the full interview, Berry’s comments seems to suggest that digital distribution is very important to XSEED’s future. That should come to no surprise to fans of the company, as many of the publisher’s recent projects have eschewed physical releases, instead releasing exclusively via PlayStation Network and the Nintendo eShop as download-only games.
While both systems will eventually fade into our memories, it’s nice to know that XSEED will keep fighting the good fight. As long as they’re around, I’m sure there will be plenty of niche Japanese titles coming to Western shores.
Xseed Games’ Ken Berry explains why it continues to support the Wii and PSP even though Nintendo and Sony don’t [Digital Trends]
