About 5 months ago, MAGES.inc, the developers behind Steins;Gate and the SciADV series, all but became insolvent, being unable to pay debts, and was at risk of bankruptcy. We wrote an article about this, which you can read here for more information. Earlier this year, on February 27th, the Japanese manga, anime, and game news site DengekiOnline did an interview with Makoto Asada, the new representative director of MAGES, who replaced the Shikura Chiyomaru, the company’s previous director, and someone who is well-known to SciADV fans.
During the interview, more details about the change of directors were revealed. Asada explains that the change of roles for both him and Chiyomaru were decided far before the official announcement. In addition, the reason for the change was for Chiyomaru to have more creative control and be more directly involved with the games the studio makes. On the other hand, Asada notes that this won’t be a radical shake-up for the company, as he intends to run it in a similar fashion to Chiyomaru. However, nothing regarding the company’s financial situation was mentioned.
The part of the article that is most important is the new information regarding games, and MAGES.’ overall plans. Which entails:
- New SciADV titles being made every 2-2.5 years.
- New ADV title in a bit different in style/subject matter to current SciADV titles. To be announced in “…not that long a time”.
- To assist in localization speed, having tighter deadlines on writing, and getting these materials to localizers sooner.
- Every new MAGES. game will have a worldwide release at launch.
Some may be skeptical about these plans, especially given it took Anonymous;Code seven years from announcement to release, but Asada says that, with Chiyomaru in a more creative position, the chances of this happening are much less likely.
So what made the company want to “…put their foot on the pedal,” in Asada’s words, with localization and international releases? It’s because of the confidence they have built over time, especially in regards to the success of international releases such as Famicom Detective Club‘s Switch remake.
Moreover, there’s some new information regarding the Infinity series, or more specifically, their remakes:
- The remake(s) is using 2D sprites, rather than 3D as used in the Xbox 360 release.
- Scenes will be based off of the Xbox 360 release, rather than the original.
- Despite the original writers of the games not being involved with the remake, (Uchikoshi/Nakazawa) some staff from the 360 release are involved.
- Overall no major announcements yet, as they’re still gathering resources. Essentially in pre-production.
As for the big announcement of the article, sometime during the summer, or at least 2023, MAGES. is planning on releasing a new Corpse Party game with Team GrisGris returning to work on the series alongside pixel graphics.
That about wraps up all the juicy details of the article. Thankfully, it seems, at least for now, MAGES. is in a good spot and has a bright future.
Sources: https://dengekionline.com/articles/174266/
(HUGE thanks to Fuwa’s own Zakamutt for picking out important details and translating parts of the article.)
