Nippon Ichi opens two new studios

Nippon Ichi Software have opened two new game development studios, giving the Japanese publisher a total of five subsidiaries. With the launch of these studios, the publisher hopes to release four major titles each year.

Nora and Counterstop are the two new studios. Their three current subsidiaries include NIS America, who localizes games developed in Japan for western audiences, System Prisma, developers of ClaDun, and Studio ToOeuf, led by Disgaea artist Takehito Harada.

NIs has also announced the cancellation of a single key, unannounced title, which has resulted in a loss of 14 million yen ($167,000). All is not bad, however. Disgaea 4 is performing much greater than expected in Japan; retailers are requesting more shipments. This has raised the game’s profits from 1.9 billion yen ($23 million) to 2.1 billion yen ($25 million). The company’s operating profited spiked from 143 million yen ($1.7 million) to 278 million yen ($3.3 million).

While Nippon Ichi is planning four major launches each year, that’s all in the future. As for now, the Japanese publisher is focusing on putting out both free and paid downloadable content for Disgaea 4.

Thanks, Siliconera.