![]() Sakurai: Because of the nature of the company, we need talent who are bilingual, who can speak fluent English and Japanese. GamesBeat: Why Long Beach, as opposed to somewhere more central in L.A., or up here in the San Francisco region? Sakurai: We were incorporated in California on October 16, and we opened the office on January 3. That’s where we’re coming in to sell our products, and that’s why we chose to establish an American subsidiary. And then the age changed and it went back to being accepted in recent years. Originally, there was a very big popular market for Japanese content in the West, and then we veered toward a time where it wasn’t as accepted. Are you seeing something similar in your audience here? players want Japanese games to be Japanese. and said, how can we make these games fit their market? But what I’m seeing is that U.S. ![]() GamesBeat: In the past, Japanese publishers and studios have looked at the U.S. Mitsutoshi Sakurai: We’re targeting the fanbase that’s after Danganronpa and a lot of niche titles like that. GamesBeat: At this point in Spike Chunsoft’s life, what is your target here in the United States? What kind of games are you going after? In addition to its success with the Danganronpa (and that iconic evil bear), it’s inherited the cult following of the Fire Pro Wrestling series and another visual novel series, Steins Gate, and the existing fansbase of the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon roguelike franchise. And it’s working on a new series, a blend of survival and role-playing that’s unique to anything I’ve seen - Zanki Zero: Last Beginning, which doesn’t have a release date yet in the West. Spike and Chunsoft merged in 2012, and since then, it’s been building upon the previous brands’ presence in the West. The series is blend of adventure games and visual novels, and it’s since helped the Japanese publisher carve out a growing business in the U.S., even leading it to open up a subsidiary earlier this year in Southern California.
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