Marvelous Announces European Joint Venture

Representatives from Japanese publisher Marvelous Interactive have announced a new joint venture with Swedish company Bergsala AB, the long-time importer/distributor of Nintendo’s products into Europe. The joint venture will see the creation of new company Rising Star Games Limited, which will initially publish titles for PSP, Nintendo DS and PlayStation 2. The new company will be based in Hertfordshire, England. Since Marvelous’ most important Japanese property is the Harvest Moon series, one of the first releases for Rising Star will be the import of the PlayStation 2 title Harvest Moon: Oh! Wonderful Life, followed by brand new iterations of the series on the Nintendo DS and GameCube. As well as these traditional Marvelous properties, the company will also be launching two new series of games for the PSP and Nintendo DS. The DS 'Revolution' series of updated retro classics will begin with the Taito-licensed Bubble Bobble Revolution and Space Invaders Revolution. This will be followed by at least one PSP 'Evolution' title this year, as well as the European release of Swords of Destiny. The firm's stated goal is to reduce the time period between Japanese and Western releases, thereby reducing the threat of grey imports. The company hopes to work closely enough with Japanese developers to reach the point where some titles are released in Europe before Japan. "Japan is the most vibrant and creative territory for videogames with global appeal," said Owe Bergsten, CEO, Rising Star Games. "Rising Star will identify the best Japanese titles which are most suitable for European gamers and work closely with our development teams to ensure that they can be published, fully localized, of course, on or ahead of their native release."