Xseed Was Eying Solatorobo: Red The Hunter

While Xseed only announced they picked up Solatorobo: Red the Hunter about a week ago, they have been following CyberConnect2’s Nintendo DS game for quite sometime.

"We have been keeping an eye on this title for awhile. Thankfully, due to our good relationship with Namco Bandai, having done Fragile Dreams and Sky Crawlers with them before, we have an open channel of communication," said Ken Berry, Director of Publishing at Xseed when we were chatting about bringing Solatorobo to North America.

"We were weighing before whether to do this title or not and once we found out Nintendo of Europe was already localizing this into English it made our decision much easier. This is a title the developer, CyberConnect2, are super passionate about and they really wanted to see it released in the U.S. and they worked with us to make it happen," Berry elaborated.

CyberConnect2 has been working on Solatorobo: Red the Hunter for ten years. The game follows Red Savarin, a Caniu or dog person bounty hunter that can transform into a human. He usually rides in his mech DAHAK which can grab and hurl enemies. Chocolat Gelato, Red’s adoptive sister fixes his mech up and kicks Red out of the airship to make money.

Solatorobo is an ambitious title, but retailers are stocking less Nintendo DS games. I asked Berry if this was a concern.

"We’re definitely worried and that’s one of the things we discussed with Namco. We had to make sure that their expectations are inline with the realities of the market now. I think both of us, meaning Xseed and Namco, are going into this project hopeful because its such a great title, but we’re also realistic about the type of sales we may see due to overall environment of the DS market right now," Berry answered.

Xseed is glossing over the localization done by Nintendo of Europe and making minor changes before releasing the game in North America. Solatorobo: Red the Hunter is slated for release this fall.