Concerns about new Hunter x Hunter fighting game over potential low development budget
Game publisher Bushiroad announced that they will be collaborating with Japanese developer Eighting on a Hunter x Hunter fighting game at the Jump Festa 2024 on December 16. Fans of Yoshihiro Togashi’s classic shōnen series were thrilled by the news, but there have been some voices of concern regarding a potentially low development budget impacting the quality of the game.
Bushiroad has described the new Hunter x Hunter-based title as a “full-fledged fighting game,” and the developer Eighting has an impressive track record in video games based on copyrighted series such as Naruto Shippuden, Bleach and the Fate Series. They have also collaborated with Arc System Works on “DNF Duel” and with Capcom on “Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds.”
More information is expected to be revealed at the 2024 Bushiroad New Year Presentation on January 6, but the initial announcement has been met with mixed reactions, as users recall a statement made by Bushiroad this year regarding their console game development costs.
In August, Bushiroad held a conference where they stated that they are planning to invest about 100 million yen (over $650.000)* per console title for the ongoing fiscal year. Having in mind that the standard investment for a medium scale console game in Japan is often over 10 billion yen (over $65 million), this announcement has caused dissatisfaction among users and concerns over the quality of future titles. (Related Article)
Because of this, as soon as the upcoming Hunter x Hunter game was announced, many expressed worries that the game might not live up to its potential due to a limited development budget.
While Bushiroad executives have assured that they will provide quality console games despite the relatively low cost, Bushiroad’s debut console game Rear Sekai was met with negative reviews both in regard to gameplay and story, which many users attribute to the low production cost.
On the other hand, there have been no official statements regarding the budget for Hunter x Hunter specifically, and it remains to be seen how Bushiroad will approach development.
*USD conversion is meant only for reference and is approximated based on the conversion rate at the time of the announcement by Bushiroad
Although i do agree about quality concerns, there is nothing currently out for it to make any judgement calls one way or the other. But i will mention it is good to give medium to smaller sized companies a chance to do something with WSJ licenses as Bandai Namco has had enormous almost monopoly licensing control over the WSJ franchises for a long time, and has been making questionable games lately with Naruto X Boruto, Sword Art Online Last Recollection and even Captain Tsubasa not being up to good quality as it should be.