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Marvelous AQL, the Japanese publisher behind games like Muramasa: The Demon Blade and Rune Factory, recently acquired Atlus Online from Index Corporation, and they plan to use their added resources in order to make further headway into the online games market.
Siliconera asked Tatsuya Nishioka, Senior Director at Marvelous Online, just what segment of online games the publisher is interested in pursuing. At the moment, Marvelous operate browser games like Battle Space and Knight of the Sky, as well as client-based MMORPGs like Pandora Saga and Shin Megami Tensei Imagine, which they inherited from Atlus Online.
Going forward, Nishioka says, don’t expect to see Marvelous Online pursuing too many more browser games.
“As you know, the browser game market is shrinking very rapidly; we are focusing on client-based games,” Nishioka said. “But with HTML5 technology on the rise, we are keeping options open based on market feasibility.”
Instead of browser titles, says Nishioka, Marvelous Online are going to be focusing on making headway in the MMORPG and first-person shooter space. There are a fair few online, free-to-play games out in the market already, but there exist a number of these kinds of games from Asia that haven’t really been explored thus far.
“We will go where demand takes us, and right now that means MMORPGs and FPS games,” Nishioka revealed. “And as I said before, we will be focusing more on client-based games. Japanese developers are not focused on these kinds of games, and the Japanese market itself is more geared towards browser-based games, so we are looking to diversify beyond Japanese developers.”
In this regard, games from Taiwan, Korea and China will be potential targets for localization, Nishioka said.
