John-ShepardLast year, Level-5 opened an office in California, which caused most to assume the new location would help the company sell Japan-developed titles in North America and overseas areas.
True, but that's not all: CEO Akihiro Hino told Nikkei Trendy that the new US division is developing its own projects. This comes as good news to role-playing aficionados who have greatly enjoyed past Level-5 games like White Knight Chronicles . Said Hino:
"We have five staff members at present. Titles that are being planned in the North American office are being developed in that region. The office staff is mostly Japanese, but we're using a style of development where we collaborate with local staff, so I believe we'll be able to make something that matches the North American market well."
Better yet, Hino says we can expect "specific title announcements at this year's Level-5 Vision." It's their annual press conference that usually occurs somewhere around the Tokyo Game Show in the fall. He says his company has noticed the rise of downloadable titles, so maybe they'll be working on a smaller project for US audiences; they'd be just the developers to handle a few traditional RPGs that we only find on handhelds these days, right?