Level-5, the Japanese developer behind Yo-Kai Watch, Ni no Kuni, and Professor Layton, is shutting down its North American operations. A company with origins tracing all the way back to the late '90s, it first gained Western notoriety for its collaborations with Sony on the PlayStation 2. Both Dark Cloud and Rogue Galaxy were common sights in the collections of RPG fans who owned PS2s. In the following generation, the company moved on to working with Nintendo on various Professor Layton games for Nintendo DS. Level-5 is best known in the past decade for self-publishing its various media franchises across the world.
In the last few years, Level-5 has shifted to mobile development, releasing editions of Yo-Kai Watch, Professor Layton, and Inazuma Eleven on Android and iOS. On the console side, its last large-scale release was Ni no Kuni 2: Revenant Kingdom, a sequel to the original Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch, which was published by Bandai Namco stateside. On the horizon, the company has several prospects, including two delayed titles in Megaton Musashi and Inazuma Eleven: Great Road of Heroes. However, there's nothing scheduled for the immediate future, which might suggest why the publisher needs to contract its international offices.
Sources speaking with GameIndustry.biz have confirmed that both Level-5 International America and spin-off company Level-5 Abby have been winding down since mid-2019. Employees were let go in August of 2019 from both branches, and Level-5 Abby COO departed earlier this year. Only a few employees remain to finish operations before everything is consolidated back to the publisher's Japanese headquarters.
It's unknown at this time what this news means for future releases of Level-5 titles in North America. While certain franchises are traditionally tied to outside publishers in the United States, at least one source is saying that there are no specific plans for releases of future Level-5 titles outside of Japan at this time. There are already a few games in the pipeline for future releases, including a third Ni no Kuni title that was announced earlier this year. In addition, the latest edition of Yo-Kai Watch was announced to get an English version when it was released in Japan in 2019, but that release has not materialized. With the recent structural changes to the company, it's not clear if any of these titles will now get timely North American or even worldwide releases.
It's somewhat of a weird throwback to see a Japanese publisher like Level-5 choose to halt releases in North America, but 2020 has been a weird year. The publisher has been on a mission to discover a brand they can sink all their resources into, but each new transmedia empire pales in comparison to those that have sprung up in other parts of the world. Yo-Kai Watch probably got the closest, especially in that brief stretch where Pokémon fans were rioting over an incomplete Pokédex, but the moment past and fans were more into throwing balls at Pikachu than taming the spirits of the dead. Whatever the future holds, let's hope that a new publisher steps up to partner with Level-5 and keep the JRPGs flowing to Western shores.
Source: GameIndustry.biz
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