Amidst rising development costs, a Japanese developer is auctioning off exclusive rights to its past IPs to fund development of new games. The full rights to Harukaze Sentai V-Force, a PS1/Sega Saturn tactical RPG from 1997, are currently up for auction at a starting bid of 330 million yen, which converts to about $2.3 million dollars. The same developer is also selling off the rights to mecha TRPG franchise BackGuiner for over $2 million dollars.
According to the listings, buyers will receive full ownership of all associated rights and complete freedom to expand and commercialize the IPs across any media, including global licensing. With the BackGuiner franchise being an unfinished trilogy (only two of the originally planned games were released) it offers the potential for a sequel. The dealer is even offering to introduce buyers to anime production companies or PC game developers based on what they plan to do with the IPs.
The curious part about these listings is that the auction agent suggests that the game company behind Harukaze Sentai V-Force and BackGuiner is “preparing” for its next title – a PC game – and has chosen to liquidate its IPs as a strategic move to free up resources, citing that “in today’s industry, production costs have soared to levels comparable to making films.”
However, these franchises were developed by Ving, a company that was active in the 80s and 90s, but has since withdrawn from the game industry. According to the official homepage of its parent company, Ving is currently being run as an online dealer of things like remote-controlled helicopters. The site does vaguely mention “computer software development” too, albeit without any examples. This might suggest that Ving is planning a comeback in game development after all these years.
It is of interest to see whether the Harukaze Sentai V-Force an BackGuiner properties will find new owners though, especially for the high prices currently being asked for. With less than 24 hours left, neither listing has any bids placed.
