Valve Contacted Japanese Developers To Bring Their Games To Steam

Steam has been getting an increasing number of Japanese titles like Recettear from Carpe Fulgur to most recently a port of ClaDun x2 from NIS America. Marvelous AQL will join the Steam train with Half-Minute Hero: Super Mega Neo Climax Ultimate Boy, which is slated for release on September 27.

"As I understand it, Valve got in touch with us! They’re keen on giving their users great options on their service and they contacted several Japanese publishers," Marvelous AQL producer Esteban Jose Salazar said to Siliconera. "I was actually hired on after MAQL had decided which game to publish. My first day they told me we’d be doing Half-Minute Hero on Steam and my grin was about a foot wide. I’m a huge fan of both.  Valve has made it so easy for us to bring the game to Steam with their constant support and amazing publishing tools.  Running development of a game in two languages (English and Japanese) can cause major headaches, but Valve was always prompt and professional in helping us out."

Xseed has said Half-Minute Hero was one of their lowest selling titles. That was disappointing news to hear since Half-Minute Hero is stellar with a fantastic localization. There’s one particular scene in the Hero 30 storyline players won’t forget. Salazar believes Steam can give Half-Minute Hero a wider audience. "[Steam] gives us instant visibility without having to worry about an ad campaign and shelf space. In addition, we can be flexible on the price. While we might have to charge more for a disc-based version, with digital distribution we can offer the game at a price that users consider fair."

Marvelous AQL has a long list of titles they could bring to Steam like Luminous Arc 3, No More Heroes, and Grand Knights History. I asked Salazar what’s next for Marvelous AQL and Steam? Will we see original games made for PC? Ports of games that didn’t get localized?

"At this point, we are considering our best options. The PC is a killer platform, Steam is a dynamite service, and as long as I’m here I’ll be championing both for our games, old or new.  The best things you can do to see more games from us on Steam is pick up this game and let us know you are interested in others.  I can’t give you any specific hints, but if the game sells reasonably well, I personally would like to see us doing something *grand* on the PC. I think others would too, but first I have to show my bosses it’s a lucrative platform."

If you have a suggestion for Marvelous AQL’s Steam lineup you can tweet them at @HalfMinuteHero.