14 DAY TRIAL // Everyone's teaming up with someone these days, whether it's in an effort to port one game from a platform to the other, or whether it's for developing a bunch of titles in a short period of time, but mostly, developers and publishers team up with each other for the DS. That's right, I've barely finished the news on Mercury and Ertain BV teaming up to make 10 DS titles, and this came up.
Rising Star Games has just announced a co-publishing agreement with legendary Japanese game developer and publisher, Hudson Soft, which will initially cover seven titles across Sony's PSP, Nintendo's Wii and (what do you know...) DS, for release between September 2007 and March 2008. How much are you willing to bet that at least three of those seven titles are meant for the DS?
"This is a significant partnership for Rising Star Games and a further endorsement that the values and business plan of the company are spot on; we are delighted," commented Mr Martin Defries, Managing Director & C.O.O. Rising Star Games. "The line up from Hudson is fantastic and we are honoured to be part of the reintroduction of Hudson to Europe along with the games it brings."
"We are very happy to have the opportunity to work with Rising Star Games," commented Mrs. Hiromi Tomisawa, Head of Europe Business, Global Business Division, Hudson Soft Co. Ltd. "They are an experienced hand at managing the very best in Japanese games for release in Europe and have a dynamism that matches our goal to return the Hudson brand to Europe once again. We have an exciting multiformat line up of titles and look forward to this partnership building."
The report says that Hudson Soft's signing with Rising Star Games is a major coup for the UK publisher, further establishing as major players in the European console publishing market, as well as bringing the firm's first Nintendo Wii title to market in early 2008.
Still wonder why the DS has sold so well over time? While Sony is by now struggling to sell a unit or two of their wonderfully crafted PSP (you have to admit), Nintendo's handheld practically sells like it did on day one. OK, so I'm exaggerating a little, but just a little. 7 titles for three consoles, though, isn't all that much. Come to think of it, the PSP could get a decent number of titles out of those seven, as the DS is already "spoken for" 10 games from Mercury and Ertain BV.