Ni no Kuni Dev Level-5 Reportedly All But Ceases NA Operations

That's a shame - I'm playing NNKII and enjoying it more than the first. Have sales expectations for NNKII and other recent titles not been met?

I'll certainly miss being able to play more games from them, especially Ni No Kuni. It's a huge shame to hear this, for the developers, and the fans.

Well that would suck. They make some great rpg's.

Sony...how about snapping up this lovely developer who helped put playstation on the map with gems like dark cloud/chronicle, rogue galaxy, ni no kuni and Dragon Quest 8.

This is one dev that would be a fantastic asset to playstation studios and would fill a gap in their portfolio

Noooo! I was really looking forward to a 3rd Ni No Kuni game 😩

@Rob_230 Thst would actually not be a bad get. Having s dedicated JRPG studio would be very valuable 🤔

@Rob_230 There’d have to be some sort of deal with Nintendo in that case. Level-5 created just as many brilliant games on Nintendo consoles as Sony ones!

@Rob_230 Dark Cloud remake would be awesome

Always thought these games looked super amazing and fun, just not a type of game I have time or patience for anymore. But I really hope for all the fan's sake these folks don't go under..

Was disappointed when I read this earlier today. Back when Squenix decided to put out the horrible FFX-2 and go MMO then Factor 5 became my go to JRPG company with the Dark Cloud games and Rogue Galaxy and I'm pretty sure a couple of others.

Then a few years back when I waited for Wonder flick to come to the US I realized they were moving much more to the quick buck of mobile and away from big JRPG. Then when Wonder flick never came west and they couldn't salvage it even in Japan with a 2.0 update - well your company is seriously in trouble when you fail with a mobile game in Japan.

So sad, but not surprised.

Awful news. I loved Dark Cloud, and NNK and NNK2 were really good fun (I still get the main theme stuck in my head every other day). I hope things come to a decent conclusion for all involved.

@rjejr have you tried the xenoblade games from monolithsoft? They’re my go to JRPG studio these days. Can’t get enough.

@Rob_230 I keep forgetting they did Rogue Galaxy. That game was quite fun. Very underrated.

@Rob_230 It Would Be Good For Sony To Buy Them Considering Sony Was The One Who First Helped Them Get On Their Feet.

Absolutely!! I have loved level-5 games since Dark Cloud!! Sony should buy them and save them. Their games sell pretty well according to gamstat.com, this is a bummer and very strange!

Sad news indeed, I really like Ni No Kuni, Yo-Kai Watch and the Professor Layton games hopefully Sony does something about it like previous comments said

@Exlee300p yeah Sony should buy them before Microsoft who are looking for more Japanese studios buy them.

Aw man, that's disappointing. Level 5 made a lot of really fun games.

Hope we still get Yo-kai watch 4 on ps4. Sony used to be quite closed to Level-5, they should rekindle their old days.

I'm sure they will hire a 3rd party to localise Ni no kuni. No need to get overly dramatic.

If Sony ever wanted to bolster their JRPGs, this is a fantastic developer for it. My favourite game of theirs is Rogue Galaxy, it is so underrated. I always wanted a sequel from it.

Did this really affect nino kuni. Nino kuni was an exception that was not self published by level 5. It was published by Bandai Namco

One of my favourite games from Level 5 was White Knight Chronicles. From the great adventure of the single player game to the mmo-like multiplayer. Loved it!

Considering Sony pretty much started up Level 5 back in the late 90's and Level 5 consequently gave Sony many hits (Dark Cloud, Rogue Galaxy, Ni No Kuni), I think these would be in the top 5, maybe top 3, of third party studios Sony should acquire.
It might be a bit difficult considering Level 5's Nintendo presence with Yo-Kai Watch, Inazuma Eleven and Professor Layton, but the biggest point being that Sony basically set up the studio could overpower their Nintendo situation.

Level 5 could be Sony's very own Square Enix, their own AAA JRPG studio. It could fit, considering that's who they were to Sony back in the PS2 era (and early PS3 era with White Knight Chronicles).
On the flip side to this, however, Sony have other huge third party JRPGS such as Final Fantasy XVI, Project Athia, Dragon Quest and Persona, so I doubt acquiring another giant company for a couple more of what they already have is going to be high up on the agenda.

Sony used to be the ones to localise their projects, so maybe Sony doesn't need to buy them in an acquisition, maybe they can give them a hand in some localisation areas or even fund their next few projects as exclusives which could have a very positive impact on Level 5 whilst maintaining their independence.
Still.....it would be a nice full circle swing if Level 5 did come home to Sony.

I'm not sure how much this would effect western releases, publishers will have their own localisation teams and companies like 8-4 do a lot of translation from Japanese to English for third parties.

Horrible news. Nino Kuni 2 is my second favourite game of all time

They can just outsource localisation

@Dannydesu Yeah if anybody asked me the last 2 or 3 years I'd probably say Monolith. After holding on to my FF7 fanboi hat for 20 years I finally relented and decided XC is my favorite JRPG. XCX I wasn't too fond of the music and story but the world was great. I watched my son play XC2 and that was good as well. Throw in that they also made the Xenosaga trilogy, and it's basically the same team that made Xenogears, which would have bene 1 of the best JRPG ever made if they had finished it rather than rush out that last lame disc, and you have yourself THE reigning JRPG company in 2020.

My son got Xenoblade Chronicles on Switch recently, looking forward to the prequel this holiday when he's home from college. If he ever has a chance to finish the first game, he seems quite busy up there.

"there were currently no concrete plans for any more Level-5 games"... I must have had a brain fart coz I had to read this 3 times, shouldn't it either be "there ARE currently..." Or "there were PREVIOUSLY no concrete plans...". God I'm so bored waiting for more PS5 news I've turned into one of those internet fools who picks apart grammar/spelling for my own self satisfied smugness!