Arc System Works President Confirms Clone Phantasma, Talks About US Expansion

This happened kind of quietly, so you may not have heard Arc System Works opened up a US division earlier this month. The company known for fighting games like Guilty Gear and BlazBlue also makes a bunch downloadable 3DS games and even brings Western games like Nano Assault Neo EX to Japan. We spoke with Minoru Kidooka, President of Arc System Works, about the US branch.

Hey cool, Arc System Works has an office in North America. What’s the goal for Arc System Works USA?

Minoru Kidooka, President: Our bread and butter, Guilty Gear, has fans not only in the United States, but around the world, as well. Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus R will soon be available for digital download on the PlayStation Vita; therefore, we felt that establishing communication with English speaking audiences was a must. I want to take this moment to emphasize, this venture is not necessarily “Arc System Works USA” as much as “Arc System Works in English.”

Our long term goals? Why, world domination, of course.

Is Arc System Works planning on releasing the Vita version digitally?

The North American digital version of +R is under development for the Vita. Hang tight, follow us on twitter, and we’ll announce any news we have in the coming days.

Is Arc System Works planning anything for Guilty Gear fans, other than ports?

But, of course we are!

Is Arc System Works planning bringing over BlayzeBloo: Clone Phantasma for 3DS?

We would love to publish this title in the states, but we’re a little short-staffed at the moment. Clone Phantasma is currently in the “localization queue” with a couple other titles.

Is Arc System Works going to localize downloadable 3DS games like Usagimaru of the Hurricane or Takagarioh for North America?

As far as Nintendo 3DS downloadable titles are concerned, we plan on releasing them, one at a time.

How about all of the visual novels or adventure games?

If we feel there’s a strong enough demand in the states, we would love to look at our options for publishing.

And retail 3DS games like the Kunio-kun titles?

We will need a little publisher support, but if there’s a strong enough demand in certain markets, it would be worth considering.

Arc System Works has a long running relationship with Circle Entertainment, another company we spoke with on Siliconera. How did you get in touch with Circle Entertainment to start working together and will we see more Circle Entertainment titles in the future?

Originally, we started working together on Rare Land Story (“Ranshima Monogatari – Rare Land Story: Shojo no Yakujou” in Japan). With our relationship established there, we are now looking into developing a few other projects.

I noticed Arc System Works has been actively licensing Western games for Japan such as Nano Assault Neo EX. Can you tell us more about Arc System Works plans to publish Western titles?

We listen to the voices of our Japanese users, and try to develop new business relationships with foreign publishers as well as independent developers. Of course, the ultimate goal here is to bring good quality entertainment and interactive media to our Japanese patrons.

In the future, is Arc System Works USA going to handle BlazBlue: Chrono Phantasma which has been announced for PS3? And by the way, how is the console version doing?

The US PS3 release of BlazBlue: Chrono Phantasma is still TBD.