Kadokawa Corporation, probably best known in the West as being the parent company of Elden Ring developer FromSoftware, has acquired the developer behind the popular throwback RPG Octopath Traveller.
Revealed by gaming publication Gematsu, Kadokawa stated during a recent earnings call that they had made the studio, ironically named Acquire, a “wholly owned subsidiary”. This puts them among the company of such developers as FromSoftware as well as Spike Chunsoft.
Despite being best known for the pair of Octopath Traveler games, they are also known for developing Akiba’s Beat game, as well as No Heroes Allowed VR.
Kadokawa stated:
To strengthen the ability to create IP in games as part of our game business strategy, we have made ACQUIRE Corp. into a wholly-owned subsidiary. By acquiring the company, which has produced million-seller hit titles, we expect to generate synergies with our existing game-related subsidiaries, strengthen our planning and development capabilities groupwide, and enhance our lineup of console games.
At this point, the synergy between developers has not been made clear, but from a developer standpoint, this might mean reduced time between game releases. This could also lead to collaborations and cross-overs between developers, though that aspect remains to be seen.
Both of their Octopath Traveler games have been well received by audiences for their ode to classic RPGs, as well as their storytelling. Additionally, its pseudo 2D art style, which blends 3D environments with 2D sprites received particular praise. This was the major selling point of the title when it was originally announced as a Nintendo Switch exclusive.
Despite only developing the Octopath series under Square Enix, the publisher has adopted this style for many titles including Triangle Strategy plus the remakes of Star Ocean 2 and Live A Live. Given the talent of some of these games from in-house Square Enix teams, it will be interesting to see these titles compete against each other, if the plan is for Acquire to even make more games in that vein moving forwards.
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