{"id":48534,"date":"2025-05-31T00:01:00","date_gmt":"2025-05-30T15:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=48534"},"modified":"2025-05-30T14:49:19","modified_gmt":"2025-05-30T05:49:19","slug":"if-we-dont-make-new-ips-well-die-nippon-ichi-software-believes-mid-size-developers-need-to-do-what-the-big-guns-cant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/if-we-dont-make-new-ips-well-die-nippon-ichi-software-believes-mid-size-developers-need-to-do-what-the-big-guns-cant\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cIf we don\u2019t make new IPs, we\u2019ll die,\u201d Nippon Ichi Software believes mid-size developers need to do what the big guns can\u2019t\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Disgaea series developer Nippon Ichi Software (NIS)<\/strong> held a live program<\/a> in March during which it announced six new titles slated for launch in 2025 and 2026. Except for <\/em>Fuuraiki 5 \u2013 the latest entry in the Fuuraiki travel game series \u2013 all of the announced projects were brand-new IPs, which NIS fans were happy to see. In a recent interview with Famitsu<\/a>, Nippon Ichi Software\u2019s new CEO Kenzo Saruhashi and Yomawari series creator Yu Mizokami talked about the company\u2019s policy when it comes to making new IPs amidst the rising costs of development and risk of failure. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Disgaea<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

From a business perspective, Saruhashi notes, making a sequel is the easier option for game companies, as you can predict sales and profit margins more reliably. \u201cBut in our case, we\u2019re more driven by whether our fans want a sequel or. If there\u2019s demand for, we\u2019ll make it.\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the other hand, making new IPs seems like a non-negotiable for NIS, as Saruhashi comments, \u201cOn the flip side, if we were to stop taking on new challenges, we would be like a fish out of water \u2013 I think we\u2019d die.” Although it may sound dramatic, there is a sound strategy behind this \u2013 Saruhashi explains that with NIS being a mid-size company, its survival depends on daring to do the things big companies can\u2019t risk trying. This approach has worked for them too, as projects like Yomawari (which director Mizokami describes as \u201ca big risk\u201d) found their audiences and turned out successful. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Yomawari\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

That said, NIS isn\u2019t managing to miraculously avoid the issue of rising development costs \u2013 in the face of financial constraints, the company is limiting budgets for its more experimental titles and relying on its devs to come up with creative workarounds. Interestingly, Mizokami comments that even if she were suddenly given a multi-million budget to work with, she\u2019d \u201cprobably get bored halfway through,\u201d preferring the thrill of problem-solving that comes with working on a tight budget. In contrast to triple-A game development, Saruhashi and Mizokami refer to NIS\u2019s approach as \u201cspeedrun\/real-time attck-style game development.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nippon Ichi Software\u2019s new CEO Kenzo Saruhashi and Yomawari series creator Yu Mizokami talk about the company\u2019s policy when it comes to making new IPs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":48537,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[17],"class_list":["post-48534","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-japan-related-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"\n\u201cIf we don\u2019t make new IPs, we\u2019ll die,\u201d Nippon Ichi Software believes mid-size developers need to do what the big guns can\u2019t\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Nippon Ichi Software\u2019s new CEO Kenzo Saruhashi and Yomawari series creator Yu Mizokami talk about the company\u2019s policy when it comes to making new IPs.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/if-we-dont-make-new-ips-well-die-nippon-ichi-software-believes-mid-size-developers-need-to-do-what-the-big-guns-cant\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"\u201cIf we don\u2019t make new IPs, we\u2019ll die,\u201d Nippon Ichi Software believes mid-size developers need to do what the big guns can\u2019t\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Nippon Ichi Software\u2019s new CEO Kenzo Saruhashi and Yomawari series creator Yu Mizokami talk about the company\u2019s policy when it comes to making new IPs.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/if-we-dont-make-new-ips-well-die-nippon-ichi-software-believes-mid-size-developers-need-to-do-what-the-big-guns-cant\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"AUTOMATON WEST\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-05-30T15:01:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/20250530-48534-header.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1351\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"756\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Amber V\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@AUTOMATON_ENG\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@AUTOMATON_ENG\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Amber V\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"\u201cIf we don\u2019t make new IPs, we\u2019ll die,\u201d Nippon Ichi Software believes mid-size developers need to do what the big guns can\u2019t\u00a0 - 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