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[RUMOR] Level-5 games no longer releasing outside of JPN?


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It seems like Level-5 games may no longer be releasing outside of Japan , as they have quietly shut down their NA branch...

 

 

I really hope this isn't because Yo-Kai Watch didn't really take off in the west like they wanted it to. Also, there was they new Layton game with Layton's daughter that didn't do as well as the other Layton games.

 

This is really said to hear and I really hope this isn't the case, because Level-5 makes some great games. 

 

PLZ...  🙏

Professor Layton Incorrect GIF | Gfycat

 

...Hopefully they can still find publishers like NIntendo to release games in the west.

Edited by alienboyva
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Closing or minimizing their North American offices isn't necessarily a guarantee that Level-5 will no longer release games outside of Japan. In the past few years they've tried self-publishing their games, but consider that many of their biggest properties were published by Nintendo (Professor Layton, Yo-Kai Watch) or Bandai Namco (Ni No Kuni). It might be better for Level-5 to continue to look to outside publishers for worldwide releases rather than self-publish, especially since they seem so insistent on making every game franchise into a big multimedia IP with tie-in manga and anime, which is harder to land in America.

 

That said, personally my interest in Level-5 games has waned quite a bit since the heyday of Professor Layton. Stuff like Yo-Kai Watch and Inazuma Eleven just never clicked with me. I don't want to see them stop releasing games in America but I'm not really interested in buying any of their recent work.

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I feel like the Layton series had a pretty good run after blowing up on the DS and sort of hitting a sunset with the 3DS.  They just weren't able to really inject much more into the series to make it click with people afterward.  Yokai Watch I felt was somewhat mismanaged after it found some early popularity and just wasn't able to sustain it.  I still remember the game blowing up in Japan and not thinking it would do much overseas but even here in the states at least the first two games were pretty big and there was something of a media presence too.  It was actually kind of cool seeing merch at Toys R Us when it first hit since it seemed like the first real Pokemon challenger in a while to actually have some real drive behind it.

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11 hours ago, Kezay said:

I feel like the Layton series had a pretty good run after blowing up on the DS and sort of hitting a sunset with the 3DS.  They just weren't able to really inject much more into the series to make it click with people afterward.  Yokai Watch I felt was somewhat mismanaged after it found some early popularity and just wasn't able to sustain it.  I still remember the game blowing up in Japan and not thinking it would do much overseas but even here in the states at least the first two games were pretty big and there was something of a media presence too.  It was actually kind of cool seeing merch at Toys R Us when it first hit since it seemed like the first real Pokemon challenger in a while to actually have some real drive behind it.

 

Agreed about Yo-Kai Watch. Though, I think most of that popularity was from the older Pokémon crowd. I don't recall kids here being that into Yo-Kai Watch.

 

I think some of Yo-Kai Watch's issues with not becoming as big in the west as Level-5 wanted it to has to do with...

  • The anime being on Disney XD in the U.S., which most people don't have.  I feel it would have done better on Cartoon Network. I would have never been interested in the PKMN games (gen 1) if it weren't for the anime being on my local UPN station (syndication) and then moving to my local WB station with it's Kids WB block when the PKMN craze hit . Though, this was just before the games released in the U.S., but still.
  • Too many games being released in a short period of time (sequel/spin-offs). It seems like Level-5 was trying to release all the Yo-Kai Watch games they did in JPN in the west as quickly as possible.

It's said that Yo-Kai Watch's success fizzled out after it hit the west, because the games were great for what they are (I only played the demos :v ) and the anime was damn good, IMO. Even though it's geared towards kids, it has some great characters with their own quicks/on going jokes, like Jibanyan who is a bit lazy, likes chocolate, and JPN girly magazines (they have cute models in them). Then there's Manjimutt who is a dog with a human face (a business man that got turned into a dog) who  keeps trying to get a normal job, but keeps getting arrested for being insanely creepy looking. :D  I watched a few eps when they used to put a full ep on their YouTube channel every week. Yeah, they knew DXD may have not been the best choice. ...But hey!... Money talks and Disney most likely paid the big bucks to get Yo-Kai watch on DXD in the U.S., thinking it was going to be the next PKMN, which they now have (This was a few years before they got the PKMN anime, which had long since been on Cartoon Network)...Or did, until Netflix picked up the latest season this year.

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