Spike Chunsoft, Japanese publisher and developer known for VN series like Danganronpa, Zero Escape and AI: The Somnium Files, has in recent years been actively working on extending its publishing business overseas. Talking to AUTOMATON, Spike Chunsoft’s executive officer and US branch CEO Yasuhiro Iizuka shared the company’s stance and future plans regarding overseas expansion. While Spike Chunsoft has successfully brought Japanese titles like Steins;Gate and BAKERU to Western audiences, they’re in no rush to ramp up the pace of new releases. Additionally, the company is determined to keep the Japanese market its top priority.
Instead of aggressively pursuing publishing deals, Iizuka says that Spike Chunsoft’s goal is to create connections with developers that can actually benefit from partnering with them. “Our goal as a publisher is to work with companies who view us as a business partner that can actually help them boost sales.” To this end, Iizuka openly turns away deals that won’t benefit developers. “I’ll say things like, Our company isnot good with this genre, so even if we work together, it won’t sell, or, If you sell 200,000 copies of this $5 title, here’s how much each of us would make. If your sales would be 200,000 copies with or without us, wouldn’t you be better off without us?”
Rather than short-term gains, Spike Chunsoft’s goal is to foster long-term connections within the industry. “We don’t want to exploit anyone. If one of our past business partners ends up making an even greater hit, and that leads to us getting another work opportunity with them – we’d only consider that a bonus. That’s our stance on the matter.”
Iizuka mentions that many Western video game companies also value such business relationships. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt developer CD Projekt and ARK: Survival Ascended’s Studio Wildcard, for example, are two developers who have been on good terms with Spike Chunsoft for a long time. “There are some doors that only open for you when you work together for a long time,” he said, emphasizing that the company is not interested in short-term revenue.
On the other hand, despite being more involved in global publishing in recent years, Spike Chunsoft is determined to maintain its focus on the Japanese market.
“While we are actively working on our overseas expansion, the Japanese market is still the most important to us. Japanese games can only be made in Japan. Also, if the Japanese game industry wasn’t this strong, we wouldn’t have been able to enter the Steam market as steadily as we did, and our overseas businesses wouldn’t be going so smoothly.”
Iizuka also brings up how maintaining a strong Japanese game market is important for Western games too – if the Japanese market is stable, this creates more opportunities for overseas games to thrive in it. “I believe the strength of the Japanese market will also be of benefit to Western games. The costs that go into developing those games are huge, so we want to maintain a strong market in Japan in which such titles will also be able to succeed,” Iizuka said.
