The Ghostlight Roundup
Hi everyone. I’m back! :) Quite a lot happened while I was away so I’ve got lots of news to share with you all.
The biggest news of the week was the release of an updated version of our only iPhone game, International Athletics. Not only does International Athletics 2012 feature 11 amazing events across a range of international stadiums, but we’ve now added leaderboard support and the best part is that you can try it for absolutely nothing, as this new version is free to play with an in app purchase allowing you to unlock all the events, stadiums and tournaments for just £0.69/$0.99.
The original PSP & DS versions of International Athletics were some of the first games I worked on here at Ghostlight and I still have very fond memories of attending an Athletics Grand Prix at Crystal Palace to show off the game.
I know it’s quite different from the type of games we usually talk about here on the Ghostlight Blog, but why not head over here and give it a try?
Onto more traditional Ghostlight blog subjects and as some of you may remember before I left, I mentioned that the PSN version of Fate/EXTRA was going through submission. Well I’ve just been told that the metadata for Fate/EXTRA has been approved which means we are now one step closer to being able to give you a PSN release date for this game :).
Talking about the PSN store, SMT Digital Devil Saga 1 & 2 are still making their way through the submissions process. While it’s frustrating and taking way longer than we thought, we’re hoping these two excellent games will soon be making their well deserved debut in the PS2 Classics section of PSN very soon.
In other news I’ve heard that our sister company, Midas, will be releasing the awesome Atlus title Maken Shao: Demon Sword as part of the PS2 Classics programme in the near future.
Anyway, that’s all for now. Thank you to Al (@ev4nac) for looking after the comments section of the blog while I was away. I’ll be back next week but until then you can also follow us on our Twitter and Facebook pages, our Youtube Channel and our Google + account, where we’ll be posting all the latest news from Ghostlight. You can also follow me on Twitter for a more personal take on all things Ghostlight.
Comments:
Awese news Ross ^^ glad to know we're at least making progress ^^
Has the DLC for Agarest War 2 been approved yet? Any news of Persona 4: Golden for Vita?
@Rena No news on Persona 4 yet I'm afraid as for the Agarest 2 DLC I believe it's been submitted bu tI can't remember if it's been approved yet. I'll check for you tomorrow.
Welcome back, Ross, thanks for the news! I have to get this off my chest: every day Persona 4 Golden remains with no European publisher I get more and more anxious! *hint hint ;) See you next week!
what Midas is your sister company the same midas that put on EU-PSN god awful shovelware crap you haven't been reading the commets ross. some are hash towards your sister company midas i wouldn't have guess it was. lol :D
Hi, Any chance that Ghostlight has any plans to acquire the licenses for Shadow Hearts + Shadow Hearts: Covenant and re-release these either in physical form or as PS2 Classics alongside with the game you have rights for? I appreciate it can be a bit difficult to find/negotiate licensing, given that neither Sacnoth/Nautilus seem to exist much and the previous publisher (Midway) has pretty much expired. Aruze are still the license holders, I would wager? Either way, it's a way underappreciated game series, and I think it lost a lot of potential sales due to mismanaged publishing back in the days from Midway. I know the first two games are rather hard to find in good shape, with English boxart/language. So there seems to be demand for it.
Will we be getting an update on the Devil Survivor games soon? I am very excited for them.
I really want fate/extra before i go on vacation for 1 month T_T
@Fredrik If they were available to us we would be very interested in bringing them over but sadly at the moment the opportunity isn't there for us. @Chris We're hard at work at the Devil Survivor games.
Good grief. SCEE really needs to work on their submission approval process speed. I'll just keep looking forward to DDS 1&2. Anyway, i know this is a longshot but not shooting is a guaranteed miss. is there any chance you could obtain the license to publish Valkyria Chronicles 3 in the EU? Sega obviously has no interest in publishing it in the west themselves and given their current situation i doubt they ever will. So maybe just maybe their willing to leave it to another publisher...
@J I'll mention VC3 to my boss again.
Something about 3ds version of SMT ? ^^
Hi Ross, Hope the holiday was good. I second the VC3 wish, Bar tear-ring saga its the game i want to play more than any other. I would love to see this released even just with subs and not new voice acting.
Can't wait for the Digital Devil Saga. I'm glad you are releasing them on PSN. If Ghostlight could bring Valkyria Chronicles 3 to the EU, I would be thrilled to bits. Just sub it and it will be fine! :)
If Midas is your sister company (had no idea), can you please ask them and tell us where the heck Octomania for the Wii is? It was supposed to come out ages ago, so looking foward to it. Please don't cancel it :( To a lesser extent, the same about Super Speed Machines for the DS
@Octopus I'm not really that involved with Midas at the moment but I think those games aren't going to be released. A real shame I spent quite a bit of time working on them :(.
Maken Shao... I still have my copy of that. PLaying it, it's hard to believe that it's running on the same hardware that runs Persona 4 and FF-XII :) I guess that's just how it goes :) As a lover of all things Shin Megami Tensei, though, I'm keen for more info on Devil Survivor and Overclocked, and have my fingers crossed to hear something from you guys in the future on P4G and SMT:IV. Pretty please? Speaking of 'pretty please', any chance - with this whole 'PS2 games on the PS3 but not for you people who actually bought it on the PS2 first time around' thing that Sony have going on - that a PSN release of Devil Summoner 2: Raidou Kuzunoha vs King Abbadon might be considered? Or has that ship well and truly sailed? Speaking of ships that have already sailed, will Europe forever be Strange Journey-less?
another plea for P4G from me and looking forward to Fate/Extra's digital release do you think you'll be doing fate/extta ccc?
I like to think that I was partially responsible for Midas picking Maken Shao as the next game to re-publish. You see, I'm a big fan of PS1/PS2 Classics and I firmly believe that ALL the games from those two console eventually deserve to be re-published digitally on PSN. I've been writing to various publishers and asking them about their plans in this field. So far, the big guys haven't bothered answering me but the smaller companies have been more forthcoming. Midas being one of them. Anyone who is giving Midas a hard time in the comments section of the PSN Store Update blog posts doesn't know what they're talking about. Midas is a game publisher and a game publisher's job is to make games available to potential customers. Midas is DOING ITS JOB and it's doing it damn well. Yeah, I wrote to them and told them that while nothing they've released so far interests me, I appreciate their efforts and hope that they stay the course. They asked if I was interested in any of their other games and I told them that I may give Maken Shao a try if they re-release it. Apparently, they listened. Contrast this with Namco, Capcom, Rockstar or Activision who act like there is zero demand for their PS2 titles.
Ross: Thanks for responding regarding Shadow Hearts. I figured it was tied up in licensing hell so I had no high hopes for a positive response, but figured it wouldn't hurt to ask. :-)
and once again so said to realize that shadow hearts wont make it on ps3 :((
Ross, do you know if you'll be able to import Digital Devil Saga 1 save data to DDS2 with the PSN versions? I ask because PS2 classics have a different way to store game saves than regular PS2 games (they don't use the memory card feature on PS3). Thanks! (and once again, +1 for Persona 4 Vita!)
I would cry tears of joy if Ghostlight localised VC3. Also, any word on Persona 4 The Golden?
Waiting patiently for Digital Devil Saga.
I know you can't give us an exact date but could you please tell me if the devil survivor games will be released in 2012 or 2013? Thanks
@justboughtaVita No plans to at the moment I'm afraid. @Andrefpvs I believe you will be able to. @Markaza I've got no news on that yet. @Jimbo We're aiming for a 2012 release for the Devil Survivor games :)
I'm gonna get a 3DS XL next month - are the odds good that I'll be able to buy it alongside Overclocked? ;) How about once I've finished Tales of the Abyss 3D? :D But yeah, I've had to go down the 3DS route at last - Tales of the Abyss, Overclocked, and soon (hopefully) Soul Hackers and SMTIV - both of which, I'm sure, are 'on the radar', right Ross? :)
@KoolZoid I don't think Overclocked will be out next month. As for the other games with the SMT fans here we are aware of them :)
Joining you as well KoolZoid, I had a psp but the 3 DS XL has so many cool rpgs coming out and FINALLY I will get to play a fire emblem game as well.
When Tales of the Abyss came out on the 3DS, I knew I'd have to get one eventually, but it was the announcements of Overclocked and then Soul Hackers and SMTIV that sealed it for me. I mean to have them, even if it means burglary!! (but not actual burglary, or whatever Uncle Monty really meant by that :P). And I may make this a regular thing, but someone please get Devil Summoner 2: Raidou Kuzunoha vs King Abadon up on the PSN!!!
Looks like I'll be buying Persona 3 Portable again, 13.99 is a steal and I can't use UMD's amymore. If you do Persona 4 Golden Ross, I hope you confirm soon, at the moment I'm importing, but a date no longer than a month from the US date will persuade me not too
@Richie. Import away, then. If Ghostlight do eventually publish Persona 4 Golden in Europe, it certainly won't be only a month after its US release date. Sometime early next year seems more probable.
Shame abour DDS, the waiting is crazy! And VC3 is a plus one for me as well, dying to get my hands on that one.
@Ben, alright maybe I've come off a bit rude with my post but this is a popular title and last year they managed to release Persona 2 only 2 months after US release. I want to support a European release but I don't really want to wait till next year, that might sound selfish but its how I feel.
@Richie, I would say a lot of the delay is on Sony's end in getting the game cleared for Eu. I know most people with Vita's are not happy with the amount of games and information is not exactly easy to get out of them (Ever tried asking on the Sony psn blog page...Ask the publisher, No, or something sarcy are the replies)Look how long Ghostlight are waiting to get the DDS games stamped. I would import if you really want it.
Richie, I totally get where you're coming from. I bought Persona:Revelations and Persona 3 PSP on import when they were released in the US - back then, there wasn't even an indication that we'd get a UK release of either of these. With Persona 2, we knew it was coming out here not long after the US launch, so I waited and bought the UK version. So.... with the US release imminent, it would be nice to get some word of a UK release :) Incidentally, even though I imported P3P, I'm picking it up today for my PSVita, so.... still supporting! :D
Hi Ross, you can count my vote towards a VC3 release as well! Pretty please!