Capcom On Ace Attorney Investigations 2’s Release: “Plans Change All The Time” [Update]

Lately, there’s been a story going around the Internet about how Ace Attorney Investigations 2 isn’t going to be seeing a U.S. release, based on comments made by Capcom’s Christian Svensson in a recent “Ask Capcom” video Q&A.

While the news is starting to pick up now, we actually spoke to Svensson on the very same subject a day or so after the Q&A was originally recorded back in March, and decided not to report it at the time. While we don’t have too much to add to the current story, perhaps our information will help give people a better overall picture of the situation.

During the video Q&A, Svensson stated in reply to a fan asking about Ace Attorney Investigations 2: “‘Is Ace Attorney coming to the U.S.?’ I assume that means Ace Attorney Investigations 2. The answer is ‘no.’ Sorry about that.”

Given how direct that statement was, it’s understandable that people are concerned. However, in a separate forum post made on Capcom’s forums a week or so prior to the Q&A, Svensson wrote: "Regarding AAI2 sorry guys, there’s no plans for Western release at this time."

We asked Svensson which of the two stances should be considered “official,” to which he replied to us: “Regarding the question, plans change all the time so I would probably rather use the ‘There are no plans for a Western release at this time for AAI2.’”

Does this mean Investigations 2 is headed overseas for certain? No. Rather, it means that, while the game isn’t planned for an overseas release at the moment, that decision may — or may not — change in the future.

We chose not to run the story at the time because we considered it a “non-story.” The reason publishers make non-committal statements like these about future releases is either because they aren’t ready to discuss them, or simply because they haven’t discussed the subject internally within the company yet in the first place.

Update: Thanks to Nathan in the comment for pointing out Svensson’s recent post on the Capcom forums that sheds a little more light on the matter, and the mention of a possible release on another platform in the future.