Marvelous Rethinks Globalization Strategy With Rising Star Sale

Publisher Marvelous Entertainment (Harvest Moon) is backing out of its 50 percent stake in Rising Star Games, a European distributor formed in 2005. Marvelous launched the Rising Star joint venture with Swedish distributor Bergsala, a longtime European distributor of Nintendo products. It was part of Japan-headquartered Marvelous' endeavor to establish a more timely and consistent global presence. Its share of Rising Star will now go to Japanese distributor Intergrow, which has worked with Bergsala in the past, collaborating with it on the Gamebridge publishing venture in London. The value of the divestiture is unknown, and according to the report, Rising Star ultimately retains the right to distribute Marvelous' games in Europe. Marvelous will continue to allow publishers in the U.S. to compete for publishing its titles individually, however. In the most recent example of this, No More Heroes 2 will be published in the U.S. by Ubisoft this week, and by Rising Star in Europe. Other companies the company has and will continue to work with in North America include Ignition and Xseed. "I am delighted to have secured further additional backing from an important Japanese company, whilst continuing our content relationship with Marvelous Entertainment," Rising Star managing director Martin Defries told UK trade site MCV.