This Week In Japanese News: From Spike To Square Enix

[Gamasutra rounds up recent reports on the Japanese games industry from local news site Andriasang.com, a leading destination for English-language news on Japan's game industry.] In our latest round-up of Japanese game industry news not previously reported on Gamasutra, we look at Spike's merger with Chunsoft, PlayStation 3 support from Nippon Ichi and Falcom, Square Enix's Android Market, and Nintendo's foray into the flash memory business. Spike Merging With Chunsoft Sales Japanese developer/publisher Spike and developer Chunsoft, both based in Tokyo and subsidiaries of technology services provider Dwango, will merge next year, and will operate under the name Spike Chunsoft starting April 1, 2012, according to a report from retailer blog Sinobi. Chunsoft is best known for creating the original Dragon Quest/Dragon Warrior NES games, the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon titles, and recent critically acclaimed visual novels like 428 and 999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors. Spike has published several Chunsoft titles in the past, as well as the Acquire-developed Way of the Samurai series and various Western games (e.g. Dragon Age: Origins, BioShock, Tomb Raider: Legend/Anniversary/Underworld). Nippon Ichi, Falcom Talk PS3 Support Discussing its upcoming plans, Nippon Ichi said it will focus mostly on PS3 during the next fiscal year, though it will keep an eye on PS Vita's and develop accordingly. The publisher hopes to continually launch new titles for PS3, such as Regasist and Hundred Soldiers. Nippon Ichi won't neglect its established brands, either, as it is considering new developments for them. On its flagship series Disgaea, the company wants to produce not just a Disgaea 5 sequel but also new ways to further expand the strategy RPG franchise. Nihon Falcom -- which once produced games exclusively for PCs, and kept its titles on PSP and PS Vita for the most part lately -- has its sights set on PS3 development, too, but it hasn't specified any plans. The company will release Ys: Woodland of Celceta (PS Vita) and a PSP title next year. Nintendo Releasing SD Cards For 3DS Nintendo will begin selling its own SDHC memory cards for the DSi, 3DS, and Wii in Japan starting early next month. The new cards, which feature branding from the platform holder instead of another manufacturer, come in 8- and 16-gigabyte variants. While 3DS systems include packed-in SD cards, they are significantly smaller at 2 gigabytes -- Nintendo does not offer complimentary SD cards with Wii and DSi consoles. Retailers will set the pricing for the new SDHC cards when they ship. Square Enix Supports Android with Final Fantasy, Chrono Trigger and Dragon Quest After throwing plenty of its support behind iOS in the past year, Square Enix now intends to open a marketplace for its RPGs on Android devices. The Square Enix Market is so far announced for only Japanese carriers starting next month. The publisher has announced titles like Dragon Quest Monsters Most Wanted, Chaos Ring, and the recent Final Fantasy mobile remake for Square Enix Market. Android releases for Chrono Trigger and Itadaki Street are also in the works. [This story was written with permission using material from Andriasang.com, a leading destination for English-language news on Japan's game industry.]