Let’s Get Serious: NIS’s Troubles

Today Nippon Ichi Software announced that they would be canceling development of three unannounced titles for the sake of cutting costs.  Each of these titles is said to have about a year’s worth time poured into them.  The monetary value of this lost time is equivalent to almost a quarter of a million dollars.  This news comes not long after the company announced dramatic profit losses and plummeting stocks.

What is NIS doing wrong?  I believe a major issue was broached at this year’s NIS America Press Event in San Fransisco. There the president of the company Souhei Niikawa stated:

From this year on, Nippon Ichi Software will limit the number of titles we release in a year.
We are doing this to improve the game quality, and also to increase the customer satisfaction.
The games that have been showcased here tonight were strictly selected and developed with this new policy.

And it does seem like NIS has been desperately trying to put out the next big title by focusing on quantity.  If you take a look at the list of games published by year on NIS’s Japanese wiki page, you’ll notice the titles have been increasing steadily each year.  In 2009 they released the most: a staggering 15 games.  Of them, six were ports.  Could their increasingly desperate attempts at flipping their games also be draining their resources?  That seems quite likely.

Maybe the issue also stems from an identity crisis.  The game that made Nippon Ichi stand out from the crowd was Disgaea.  This is their flagship title and their fans want games like it.  I would feel a lot more comfortable knowing that instead of putting out games their fans don’t enjoy, they save their resources for core products.  Does NIS want to be a company that puts out unique, challenging, hour-consuming games for the hardcore gamer?  I used to believe so but certain games make me wonder.

Their recent titles seem to suggest they are returning to their roots, specifically those recently announced for release by NIS America: Z.H.P and ClaDun.  However, these titles have already been released in Japan and NIS is still struggling.  I believe that they are on the right path with their titles that they themselves are developing.

On that note I want to come out and say that NIS should stop collaborating with other developers.  Their weakest titles are the ones that they do not handle on their own.  The titles made with Hit Maker (A Witch’s Tale and Last Rebellion) are shining examples of games that do not say NIS to me, and their sales and reception prove this.  The games made in corroboration with Gust and Idea Factory under the Compile Hearts pen-name (Cross Edge, Trinity Universe, and now Neptune) are weak to say the least.  They may appeal to the hardcore gamer and maintain some of the humor we’ve come to except from NIS but truthfully, they are standing on the rocky foundation of a gimmick: all of your favorite characters in a sub-par game.

Possibly the best example I can offer to you of a game that both does not say “NIS” and is being co-developed with another company is the recently announced Criminal Girls.  This game is being made in collaboration with Imageepoch, developers of the only slightly perverted Luminous Arc series and the recent SMASH HIT Arc Rise Fantasia.  In Criminal Girls you assume the responsibility of rehabilitating naughty girls by spanking them and giving them massages so that they may ascend to heaven.

This title seriously borders on eroge. Nippon Ichi has never released a title like this, so why should they now when they are struggling? Is it a last ditch effort to appeal to the perverted underbelly of the gaming world? Do they expect to sell copies simply because of shock value? I can’t say, all I know is that titles like these will alienate more people then they will attract.

My love for NIS may have silenced me when it comes to criticizing them the past few years.  I truly love this company and feel Disgaea defined me as a gamer during a rough patch in my life.  Now, with the announcement that three titles were canceled but not Criminal Girls, I can be silent no longer.  The company needs to get back on track: release less titles, develop in-house, and bring back what it means to be Nippon Ichi.

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