Support NeoGAF

[NotMSRP]

This news is 2 days old but isn't anywhere on GAF yet.

D3 Publisher Establishes American Subsidiary
10.13.04 - 10:34 PM

D3 Publisher has announced the creation of an American subsidiary. Its Tokyo-based parent company will hold a 99.5% stake in the new enterprise, which will officially begin operations on November 1st. For the time being, D3 Publisher wants to establish its own distribution channels for packaged software on the American market. The planned expansion however also includes planning and development of software as future options.
D3 Publisher is best known in Japan for its highly popular Simple 2000 series of budget releases. The company has also released HuneX's PlayStation 2 dating simulation Love Songs: Idol no Classmate and various spin-offs. Furthermore, D3 Publisher holds a 49% in 3D Ages, a joint venture with Sega Sammy Holdings, which re-releases classic titles such as Phantasy Star on the PlayStation 2 at budget prices.

 

[explodet]

The war of budget software publishers has only just begun.







EDIT: I also noticed that D3 may be working on games for the DS in Japan, would make sense if they worked on some for the North American market.

 

[ferricide]

it was fucking CRAZY to go to japan and see the whole lineup (more or less) of simple 2000 games splayed out in front of me at yodobashi's game store in shinjuku. can't wait to see what they do in the US... lots of the games are shit and people only care because they're quirky (oneechanbara, i'm looking at you) but it'll be a fun ride.

hope they're $15 instead of $20, though, because $20 is too much. seriously. you can buy lots of real, actual, good non-budget (marked down) games for $20. =P $10 would be even better!

 

[Rummy Bunnz]

If Sony approves this stuff at $20 it'll be sickening. $10 is so the limit, and I'm a sucker for stupid crap.

I bet they break my heart and release nothing but crappy bulldozer and deer hunter games catered to Americans rather than crappy translated stroke ping pong and photography games catered to retards.

 

[Priz]

it was fucking CRAZY to go to japan and see the whole lineup (more or less) of simple 2000 games splayed out in front of me at yodobashi's game store in shinjuku. can't wait to see what they do in the US... lots of the games are shit and people only care because they're quirky (oneechanbara, i'm looking at you) but it'll be a fun ride.

hope they're $15 instead of $20, though, because $20 is too much. seriously. you can buy lots of real, actual, good non-budget (marked down) games for $20. =P $10 would be even better!

heh, someone bought me Oneechanbara for my birthday because I was amused by the concept. It was amusing until Level 2. Now I'm hating it.

 

[radios shipping overview]

heh, someone bought me Oneechanbara for my birthday because I was amused by the concept. It was amusing until Level 2. Now I'm hating it.

Yeah, the action alone is fun enough...for about 30 minutes. The levels are awful drawn-out re-re-recycled crap. I still think the action, character, and systems are sound; they just needed a decent game built around them.

It'll be interesting to see just how many of D3's games SCEA approve for release.

 

[ferricide]

It'll be interesting to see just how many of D3's games SCEA approve for release.

i think the approval process gets less and less stringent as the MSRP of the game descends.

on the other hand sony may want to stop them from flooding the market with crappy budget titles because that was sort of the death knell for the PS1.

what i'd like to see is more decent japanese games we've missed come out for $20, not D3's unplayable shit.

 

[Pachinko]

I say they package 2 or 3 of those games into one package for 30-40 dollars.

 

[ferricide]

I say they package 2 or 3 of those games into one package for 30-40 dollars.

ugh. that would be horrible. the whole point of these crappy games is the fact that some few of them are interesting for one reason or another.. and then you'd be stuck with one or two you didn't want. i mean, ten minutes after you start playing oneechanbara and the magic wears off, you know your 2000 yen went down the drain, but damnit... you wanted oneechanbara and that's what you got! if you get stuck with the daibijin and something else on top of that, it would be too much to bear.

 

[cvxfreak]

This can only be bad for the industry.

 

[fennec fox]

It's bad for the industry in the way that those "30,000 FREE GAMES" cds they sell in the Wal-Mart racks are bad for the industry. In other words, they aren't because they target a wholly different, impulse-oriented audience from your typical core gamer.

 

[ferricide]

This can only be bad for the industry.

don't think shitty bargain games on PS1 hurt anything. and hey, we got top shop out of it too, so all's well that ends well. =P

 

[jenov4]

Does this mean PS3 should be around the corner? I recall the flood of the budget titles towards the end of PS1's life cycle! Bring on the crap!