Following its unexpected end-of-service announcement in May, Akatsuki Games’ free-to-play ARPG Tribe Nine will permanently shut down on November 27. But in an unusual twist, three members related to the project requested permission from Akatsuki Games to take over (as an external party) and see to it that Tribe Nine’s story gets a proper conclusion. The publisher granted them permission to establish Neoneon Tribe, a non-profit, unofficial doujin project dedicated to resurrecting Tribe Nine.
The project is led by Kazutaka Kodaka, who created the original concept for Tribe Nine (but did not participate directly in development), former Tribe Nine producer Shuhei Yamaguchi (who has since left Akatsuki Games), and former scenario writer Katsunori Suginaka. Although Akatsuki Games still owns the IP, Neoneon Tribe’s members hope that what they’re doing will encourage others in the industry to revisit previously abandoned IPs, as well as nudge rightsholders to consider entrusting their franchises to people more interested in working on them.
Talking to AUTOMATON, Yamaguchi comments, “There are plenty of titles across the industry that haven’t had sequels for years, and plenty of releases fans are begging for that never get made. I think that in such cases – assuming the company itself has no plans to do something – the industry should be more open to letting other motivated parties step in and move things forward.”
Reviving old franchises is, above all, a hassle for companies, so IPs can end up being ignored even if there are individuals proposing promising ideas. “In most cases, I think companies judge it too troublesome to sort out the rights for works from 10 years ago, so proposals to revisit them aren’t accepted most of the time. But Japan is full of such works, whether it be anime, manga, or games. When considering the broader perspective of sending Japanese content out into the world, I believe Japan should actively work towards enabling more flexible handling of such IPs. If our doujin project can serve as a forerunner of that, that would be very exciting.”
With how high-stakes game development has become, setting a successful precedent is key, Yamaguchi says. “If we can prove that a work once thought to have no value can regain commercial value, others will follow. In today’s game industry, nothing moves without precedent, and this is why we see so many similar titles, or “-likes” of popular game systems. Because making games is so expensive, companies need prior success cases to base their moves on. But once a success story emerges, it tends to spread the idea that this approach is viable, so I hope we can pioneer a new path.”
Tribe Nine is available for free on PC (Steam), iOS and Android until November 27. The members of Neoneon Tribe encourage fans to play through all story chapters while the game is still available, as their doujin work will continue from where the game left off.
