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Thinking of Spike, the Shibuya based publisher is paying the bills by localizing North American developed games for Japan. Haze, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblvion, The Darkness, and BioShock are their products. Most of these are niche games in Japan, so I like to think of them as the Atlus equivalent in the region.
The difference is Spike publishes Japanese developed games like the Way of the Samurai series. The third game is just about finished and it is scheduled to come out in Japan this fall for the PlayStation 3. If you don’t count Samurai Western as a proper follow up to the Way of the Samurai series, it’s been five years since Way of the Samurai 2 came out. Famitsu notes the AI has been bumped up and you can beg for forgiveness by pressing the L2 button.
Spike was working on a Way of the Samurai game called Way of the Samurai Online for the Xbox 360, but it’s not even on their schedule now. It’s officially canned, which means the Way of the Samurai series is sticking with the PS3.
Xbox 360 owners don't forget to ask Spike to repeatedly press the left trigger of the Xbox 360 controller.
Images courtesy of Spike and Famitsu.
