This Week In Japanese News: From One Piece To Falcom

[Gamasutra rounds up recent reports on the Japanese games industry from local news site Andriasang.com, a leading destination for English-language news on Japan's game industry.] In our latest round-up of Japanese game industry news not previously reported on Gamasutra, we look a One Piece social game, and higher-than-expected sales for Japanese publishers Tecmo Koei and Falcom thanks to titles like Dead or Alive Dimensions, Ys and The Legend of Heroes. One Piece Social Game Coming to Mobage Namco Bandai will create a social game or one of its most popular licenses, manga/anime series One Piece, with a new title called One Piece Grand College, which will launch on DeNA's mobile social network Mobage this winter. It will be a free-to-play title with item-based microtransactions. One Piece has received dozen of home console and handheld video game adaptations in the past, starting with One Piece: Mezase Kaizoku Ou for the Wonderswan back in 2000 to more recent entries like One Piece: Gigant Battle (DS) and One Piece: Unlimited Cruise (Wii), many of which have come out in the West. Tecmo Koei Beats Forecasts, Outlines 2012 Plans In an earnings presentation last week, the company reported sales of ¥13.6 billion ($177.2 million) and net profits of ¥412 million ($5.3 million) for the first half of its fiscal year ending March, beating previous forecasts of ¥12.5 billion and a ¥400 million loss, respectively. The publisher noted that it sold 310,000 copies of Dead or Alive Dimensions for 3DS worldwide, and 160,000 units of Dynasty Warriors 7 Xtreme Legends for PS3/Xbox 360 in Japan. It said those games, along with Samurai Warriors 3 Empires, Dynasy Warriors 7's downloadable content, and social games One Million Person Ambition of Nobunaga and One Million Person Sangokushi performed well. Looking ahead, the company will actively support new platforms like PS Vita, 3DS, and the upcoming Wii U, shipping Ninja Gaiden 3 Razor's Edge as a Wii U launch title. It is also working on collaboration titles, such as One Piece Pirate Musou, which combines Dynasty Warriors gameplay with the popular One Piece franchise. Falcom Sales, Earnings Up On Success Of Ys, Legend of Heroes Nihon Falcom Corporation saw sales of ¥1.6 billion ($20.3 million) during the October 2010 to September 2011 period, a 28.7 percent boost over the ¥1.2 billion ($15.8) million reported for the same period in the previous year. It also said net earnings were up 99.7 percent to ¥318 million ($4.1 million) in its annual earnings statement. The developer and publisher attributed the increases to strong sales for RPG titles The Legend of Heroes and Ys Seven (PSP). It said The Legend of Heroes: Ao no Kiseki for PSP (the third entry in the LoH: Trails in the Sky sub-series, coming to the U.S. courtesy of Xseed), is performing well, and sales for the previous titles in the LoH: Trails in the Sky trilogy continue to grow. Falcom intends to actively pursue expanded sales for the Trails in the Sky series, and has other major titles currently in development. It also has projects for social network services, smartphones, and other online fields that will launch this fiscal year. [This story was written with permission using material from Andriasang.com, a leading destination for English-language news on Japan's game industry.]