You want Disgaea 4 on the Xbox? So does Nippon Ichi’s president, Haru Akenga. In an interview, Haru explained that Nippon Ichi asks Microsoft for the opportunity to develop for the system all the time, particularly when it comes to their Disgaea games.
If only fan demand was seen as a convincing argument. Alas, it’s not that simple: Nippon Ichi has only 80 employees, and to make matters worse, the Japanese market for the 360 is negligible. That last bit is crucial, as the Japanese market is their priority — this is the reason that Nippon Ichi focuses so heavily on PSP development. Hence, even if they were able to develop for the 360, it’s very unlikely that Nippon Ichi would act on the opportunity anyway. “If they have time to develop for Xbox 360, they would rather use the time to develop titles for PSP. That’s the situation,” laments Haru.
While it’s obvious that this is a business decision, I’m not sure that the Japanese market should dictate what happens on western shores. The Xbox market is very healthy in the west, and if there’s a property of Nippon Ichi’s that can break the 50,000 target sales necessary to get the green light for development, it’s definitely Disgaea.
Our fan-powered interview with NIS America’s president part 1 [Siliconera]
