How Majesco is Changing Game Development

Jan. 18 6:52 AM by Alicia Ashby

This article is kind of interesting, though I almost passed on covering it for its "old news" factor. Japanese developers have been making games for a primarily American audience for a long time, though I suppose it's novel for an American publisher to be outright commissioning games from Japanese developers.

For instance, Majesco no longer works with Taito on the Cooking Mama series. Taito published the game in Japan, and Majesco licensed it from them. But for future iterations of the series, Majesco went straight to the game's developer, Office Create, and secured a long-term deal that gives them the North American rights to the series.

Majesco is probably very lucky to have this direct relationship with Office Create for Cooking Mama, because Taito is now owned by Square Enix. The acquisition, says Sutton, "changed the dynamic there as to who works with who and who's running what." Majesco does maintain a relationship with Taito for licensing other games, such as Bust-A-Move for Wii.

Comments

The publisher working directly with the developer and bypassing the middle man is a great idea, as long as both companies have personnel who can communicate well with each other and help get the product to where they want it.

Less cooks in the kitchen, and all that.

 

You must be registered and logged in to leave comments.

If you are already have a login with GamePro.com, Gamerhelp.com, Games.net or GameProFamily.com, then use that login!