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Aksys Games on localizing the hot samurai of Hakuoki
During this month's Anime Expo, Aksys Games revealed plans to localize Idea Factory's Hakuoki: Demon of the Fleeting Blossom, a romance-centric visual novel for PSP, and one of the few games in that genre (called "otome" games, for a Japanese term for "maiden") ever to be officially localized for the West. Following the bizarre announcement, I asked Aksys for more information on this relatively unfamiliar genre and this game in particular. So what exactly is an "otome" game? " In a loose sense," Aksys Games' lead editor Ben Bateman told Joystiq, "'otome' games are games targeted at girls, and are usually something in the vein of a visual novel. They usually focus on meeting, attracting, and developing a relationship with, one of a selection of several hot mans [sic]."
Codemasters denies picking up APB
If you were holding out hope that the defunct urban crime MMO All Points Bulletin would be resurrected courtesy of the folks at Codemasters, Eurogamer has a little bit of cold water to throw on your fire. David Solari, Codemasters Online general manager, minces no words in a recent interview. "We have not picked up APB, I can answer you definitively," he said. Rumors circulated that the publisher might be picking up the pieces of the shuttered MMO, left scattered by the closing of Realtime Worlds, when former RTW community manager Ben Bateman updated his LinkedIn profile to reflect his new job at Codemasters. Epic Games has also been rumored as a potential salvager, and Solari says that someone will inevitably pick up APB's assets, if only for the innovative tech. "If they don't pick up the game then they will pick up the technology for sure, because the avatar and character customisation technology is incredible. Something will definitely be done to preserve that," he muses.
Ben Bateman details the fall of Realtime Worlds and APB
Interested in an insider's view of the fall of All Points Bulletin and its development studio Realtime Worlds? Eurogamer takes a look at the last days of the now-defunct MMOFPS in a lengthy article that focuses on former community manager Ben Bateman. If you're looking for an in-depth exposé of why the game failed and who is responsible, you won't find that here, as the piece is heavy on the human interest angle and light on actual details beyond the plush (by game industry standards) working conditions. Still, it's worth a read, both for Bateman's perspective and his relentless positivity in the face of a uniformly bad situation. "They essentially said, 'here are the 50 people that we want to keep on. Please go to room X.' It was tough," says Bateman, recalling the Begbies Traynor administration meeting that sealed the company's fate.
