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Japanese shoot-'em-up developer Cave ceasing Western presence
Deathsmiles and DoDonPachi series creator Cave Interactive is shutting down its Western-facing public presence, ending its long-running English-language blog and closing up shop on Twitter. After marketing its games exclusively in Japan for many years, Cave made great strides toward establishing a presence in the West with iOS ports of its popular bullet hell shoot-'em-ups DoDonPachi Resurrection, Espgaluda 2, and Bug Princess. This week's announcement follows the recent departure of studio head of development Makoto Asada as the company restructured its business to focus on mobile and social games. Cave ported many of its arcade shoot-'em-ups to the Xbox 360 in Japan, and partnered with North American publishers to produce localizations for games like Akai Katana and Deathsmiles. The studio previously self-published an untranslated version of Deathsmiles 2X in North America via the Xbox 360's Games on Demand service in a bid to gain a foothold in the Western market.
Cave dev head Makoto Asada leaves to work on next-gen projects
Cave Interactive, revered house of bullet-hell shmups with funny names, has lost its head of development today. Makoto Asada announced his departure in a blog post, where he thanked fans for supporting his five-year tenure with the company and revealed he's moving on to next-gen console projects. Asada's most recent contributions were on Dodonpachi Maximum, a Windows Phone installment in Cave's popular series. Asada also worked on Deathsmiles, EspGaluda 2, Guwange and pretty much every other shmup the company put on Xbox 360.
Cave to put projects on hold, refocus on social gaming
It's easy to forget sometimes that video games are a business, as well as a means of artistic expression and recreation. Even developers like Cave, whose sterling reputation is due almost entirely to its long-time devotion to the incredibly esoteric bullet-hell genre, have to make tough decisions in order to continue existing. The Deathsmiles developer's fiscal outlook isn't shaping up to be quite what it had expected, and as a result the company will be placing unknown projects on hold in order to devote more resources to social gaming, Andriasang reports. Originally expecting to earn ¥1.4 billion ($18.9 million) in sales between June 1 and November 30 2011, the company now anticipates earnings of ¥1.3 billion ($16.8 million), which has prompted Cave to change its forecasted operating gain of ¥10 million to an operating loss of ¥31 million for the period. Operational earnings for the entire year were lowered from ¥310 million to ¥50 million. In a nutshell, people aren't buying as many infuriatingly difficult games as expected, which is surprising considering how popular masochism has become recently.
Deathsmiles iOS getting update August 6, see it on Ustream August 5
The iOS version of Cave's delightfully spooky/cute and incomprehensibly difficult bullet-hell shooter Deathsmiles will be receiving its first major update on August 6. In addition to new costumes and music, Cave will also be importing new weapons from two of its other shooters, Guwange and Dodonpachi Resurrection. At the moment, it's unclear whether or not these items will be included in the update, or will appear as for-pay DLC. The full update will be showcased on Ustream on August 5 by producer Masa King, who will also be making a "surprise announcement" of some kind. Our guess? Deathfrowns.
Cave developing shooter for Windows Phone 7
As far as Deathsmiles developer Cave is concerned, Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 platform can go to hell. Bullet-hell, that is! Makoto Asada, head of Cave's Game Development Department, has announced via dev-blog that the company is currently developing a shooter for Microsoft's burgeoning smartphone OS. Beyond the fact that development is somewhere between 20 and 30 percent complete, details are scarce. No screenshots or other information have been given, though the announcement refers to the game as an original title, which more than likely means it won't be a port of Cave's recent Deathsmiles release for iOS (above). It's also safe to assume that the game will be bewilderingly difficult.
Deathsmiles comes to iPhone July 7, see it on Ustream July 1
This month, Cave gave the iPhone version of Deathsmiles a "2011" date. We didn't have to wait long to find out when in 2011 -- and we won't have to wait long to play it. Cave announced that you'll be able to enter Deathsmiles' moe gauntlet on July 7. For the first four days, it'll be priced at $4.99/£2.99/€3.99, then the price will go up to $8.99/£5.49/€6.99. If you're uncontrollably thrilled about the new iPhone shmup, you'll be able to get an early look at it on Friday, July 1. Cave is hosting a Ustream "live sneak peek" event introducing Deathsmiles and revealing new content for the iPhone version. The 30-minute broadcast will be translated into English on the fly, for those of you who are into Cave shooters but not so into them that you learned Japanese.%Gallery-126265%
Deathsmiles upon iPhone this year, new trailer arrives today
Do you want to play games on your iPhone, without being accused of being a "casual gamer"? Here you go: Deathsmiles. If someone regards you in a manner that suggests they doubt your core-ness while you're playing a Cave shooter, you can be secure in the knowledge that that person is so wrong. Also, don't worry so much about being a core gamer, you hypothetical person. The iPhone version of the side-scrolling arcade/Xbox 360 shooter is due sometime this year. Prepare yourself with the trailer after the break and the new screens in our gallery.%Gallery-126265%
'Death Smiles 2X' rated by ESRB, Cave publishing
Our mothers always said "If death smiles at you once, you should try to wrap up your personal affairs. But if death smiles a second time, he's probably just flirting." Imagine our disappointment then when we read the ESRB listing for Death Smiles 2X to find it was not, as we'd assumed, a dating sim set at River of Styx High, but rather an Xbox 360 follow-shmup to Cave's bullet hell release Deathsmiles (seen above). Cave will take over publishing duties from Aksys on the game, which features shooting "various projectiles (bombs, bullets, lasers, arrows, etc.) at elephants, pigs, goblins, bats, and monsters in constant air battle." ... OK, so that's probably a better concept than ours. Probably.
Cave porting Deathsmiles to iPhone for spring release
Along with its big Xbox 360 release announcement, shooter company Cave had some good news for iPhone fans at its event over the weekend. Deathsmiles, the flying-magical-girl shooter released on Xbox 360 last year, is coming to iPhone and iPod Touch. "From arcade to Xbox 360," the trailer reads; "and then, from Xbox 360 to iPhone." Deathsmiles will be released in spring. Unlike packaged games, Cave can self-publish on iOS, and it's been good about localizing its games in a timely manner. So the insane shooting action in the trailer after the break need not be tinged with sadness.
Deathsmiles standard edition available next week from GameStop
If you want to play Cave's Xbox 360 shmup Deathsmiles, but don't need a big box or a faceplate, you'll be able to pick it up cheaply next week. A listing on GameStop.com revealed a standard version of Deathsmiles, coming out for Xbox 360 on September 28 for $29.99. A representative of Aksys Games confirmed the release to Joystiq, saying that "the Deathsmiles Standard Edition will be $29.99 at GameStop for now." If you buy this and then something falls on your Xbox 360, cracking your current faceplate ... be sure to tell us. We'll do our best to be sympathetic while marveling at this unlikely, ironic happenstance.
Wanna play EspGaluda 2? Import the standard edition
It's been nearly half a year since we first reported that the Cave-developed shooter EspGaluda II wasn't likely to see a release outside of Japan. It looks like that's all but assured now, as Cave producer Makoto Asada gives Kotaku some importing advice. According to Asada, of the two versions of the game, only the standard edition will be region-free, meaning it will play on any Xbox 360. Meanwhile, the Limited Edition of EspGaluda II remains region locked, as Cave "didn't have enough time to get the application in before pressing," thus making the disc playable only in Japanese consoles. So, importers beware and stay away from that Limited Edition come EspGaluda II's February 25 release. Beyond that, you could always wait to satisfy your shmup craving until the North American release of Cave's Deathsmiles instead.
Cave's Deathsmiles bringing bullet hell to North America via Aksys
click to horizontally scroll through our gallery Japanese developer CAVE is famous for its hardcore "bullet hell" shooters -- at least among importers, because the console versions of those shooters have never been localized. Nobody's been crazy enough to put the time and money into one of the super-hard niche shoot-em-ups, until today, when Aksys Games (the company crazy enough to localize Cho Aniki Zero) announced that it will publish Deathsmiles on the Xbox 360. While this is going to be incredible news to shmup devotees, Deathsmiles may be a hard sell to general audiences, with its "gothic lolita" aesthetic and punishing difficulty. Those who do check out Deathsmiles for whatever reason will find a horizontal shooter with branching paths, online co-op play, and, in the words of Aksys's Cherie Baker, "little girls flying through a gothic otherworld to destroy the horrific, necrotic Imperator Tyrannosatan." Aksys has yet to announce a release date for Deathsmiles. %Gallery-83388%
New details on upcoming Cave shmups
After revealing plans to release more of its shoot-em-ups to the Japanese market, Cave has released new details on some of its upcoming ports. First up is Mushihime-Sama Futari 1.5, a 2006 arcade game. Mushihime-Sama Furtari 1.5 will receive a limited edition, which includes a two-disc soundtrack and a download code for Mushihime-Sama Futari 1.1. The game will release on November 26 in Japan. Next is EspGaluda II, a 2005 arcade game, which will release on 360 in Spring 2010. If you're hoping to see these shmups head overseas, don't hold your breath. Cave's previous Xbox 360 effort, DeathSmiles, has yet to see release outside of Japan, making a stateside release less than likely for Mushihime-Sama Futari 1.5 and EspGaluda II. [Via Andriasang.com] %Gallery-70252% %Gallery-70253%
