How Did Ignition Entertainment End Up With Muramasa: The Demon Blade?

Xseed was supposed to publish Muramasa: The Demon Blade, but now Ignition is handling the duties. Even though we’re still getting Muramasa: The Demon Blade, the sudden publisher switch was unexpected. What happened? During E3 I set out to find out.

“I don’t know if I can get away with saying too much about this, but Xseed was kind of being punished, to some extent,” explained Robert Macchiaverna, Acquisitions Manager at Ignition Entertainment. “They wanted to light a fire under the guy who was in charge of them. Out of all the games we actually have ties with Vanillaware and we were able to get Muramasa. We have a very good relationship with Vanillaware already.”

Hold it! “You already have a relationship with Vanillaware?”, I asked before Macchiaverna could finish his sentence. “We do have relations with Vanillaware.” When probed for more details like if Ignition was developing another game with the studio Macchiaverna said, “Honestly, there are things going on, but I cannot talk about them at this point in time. They will be revealed at a future date.”

I also asked Macchiaverna about the fold out scroll Japan got as a bonus for pre-ordering Muramasa: The Demon Blade. “We are going to have a pre-order bonus, but we’re not sure if it’s going to be the scroll. There is a good chance of that, though.”