Things appear to not be going well for Nippon Ichi Software, as reports, comments, and outcries of financial problems begin to crop up. NIS is not to be confused with its North American localizing and publishing branch, NIS America; NIS itself is the Japanese studio that develops titles such as Disgaea, Phantom Brave, Labyrinth of Refrain, The Witch and the Hundred Knight, and many other niche JRPGs. Currently, they are working on Disgaea RPG, a mobile phone game, which was delayed "indefinitely" earlier this year after a rocky launch that saw the game taken down entirely, causing company stocks to plunge in the aftermath. A month after the delay has now seen further complications for NIS, as blogs, news outlets, and even employees have come forward to say that workers will soon go without pay, as the company doesn't have the funds for salaries.

As reported in Japan, Nippon Ichi Software has gone through with a Moving Strike Warrant, meaning that they're selling their stocks far below value, in order to quickly make money at the cost of current stockholders investments in attempts to quickly generate enough to pay their employees. As Disgaea RPG has been in development for two years and wasn't ready for launch, there has been no income brought in to provide the development team with their wages. For the few Japanese players that bought in-game items before the game was pulled, they can now request a refund, through opening a support ticket on the official website, presumably occurring now rather than immediately after the game was pulled, as a result of the MS Warrant.

It is not currently known how this will impact future Nippon Ichi Software games, such as the in-development Disgaea 6.

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[coppertj]

thats a shame, i played cave story for the first time on 3ds and bought the special edition case version. Was a really good game. i've been hooked on their games ever since I really hope they pull through

 

[netovsk]

Why dont they put their PS3/PS4 games on sale instead of dumping stock? I'd even buy some Disgaea/Phantom Brave games but even when on sale they are way expensive.

Plus, limiting their release platforms for the sake of idiocy sure doesn't help. I have a friend who is a big fan of Disgaea games but he's on xbox. Seeing how their games are available on windows they could port it to xbox at minimum cost/effort. They could even put some such as Disgaea Remastered on game pass for a quick cash instead of dumping stock.

 

[DCG]

Nisa is a subsidiary of them, so nisa fucking stuff up is their responsibility...
So I'm guessing it's still a case of "get woke, go broke"...

I'll have to take a look at which games have been censored and which have not, to see which ones I'll pick up before they're gone :/

 

[Bladexdsl]

not surprising they have lost their mojo lately Disgaea 5 was fucking terrible.

 

[Jayro]

Spent the entire game's budget on hookers and blow, eh?

 

[gameboy]

Unlosing Ranger is one of my top games of all time.

Sad.

that game is hilarious. a lot of nis games have incredible humor but theyre WAY too grindy and looty

 

[Harsky]

I bet Square Enix acquires their IP or the whole company.

 

[leon315]

Hopefully, they got bought out and restructured.

Which company bought them?

 

[Darksabre72]

no surprise, they have been doing pretty shit for a long time now, releasing buggy games, releasing weeb games on platforms without weebs to buy them and censoring themselves to appeal to a wider audience that isn't there.

idk if this counts but they removed features from the Steam version of Disgaea 5 Complete

 

[eyeliner]

That's niche for ya.
Only hope for survival is launching something as fan service or being picked up/contracted by something like Nintendo/Sony/Microsoft and develop a game, much akin to Inteligent Systems and Fire Emblem: Awakening. They need to get their games to a broader audience.

 

[Izual Urashima]

Another case of "get woke, go broke", it seems. However, NIS still has an option to get out of it - Torch NISA and get the money back, leaving eventual localisations being done by other, more competent companies.

 

[Vieela]

It's so sad to see this happening tbh. NIS is way too "off mainstream" with their games, it just really makes two times harder to survive. I hope they are able to recover.

 

[Eleczoro]

Sad to hear a longtime publisher like this might be going down.

 

[Darksabre72]

the DLC on the PSP version is a mess due to NISA's incompetence

not surprising they have lost their mojo lately Disgaea 5 was fucking terrible.

Hopefully, they got bought out and restructured. Haven't been a fan of their latest work.

could anyone tell me why or what happened to disgaea games over the years that make them bad?

 

[hotaru251]

I hope the worse thing that happens is that they are bought by another good company.

just dont let EA near em :| else that will be end of em.



Sucks about their trouble

I loved main games cast and (IMHO) 3-5 havent been better than the 1st 2 games.


Hope they can turn their $$ around and keep making fans happy.

 

[Shogil]

Nisa is a subsidiary of them, so nisa fucking stuff up is their responsibility...
So I'm guessing it's still a case of "get woke, go broke"...

I'll have to take a look at which games have been censored and which have not, to see which ones I'll pick up before they're gone :/

That's what I want to know: Do the NISA screw-ups hurt NIS in any way? I'm assuming if a NISA game undersells due to poor performance, bad pricing, translation issues etc. then that also hurts NIS?

 

[Deleted_413010]

I don't feel remorse...never even heard of them or their games but it doesn't sound like games I would play.

As for employees not being paid if I didn't get paid for even a single month I would quit and possibly sue the company. Its bullshit which I do not like.

 

[brunocar]

could anyone tell me why or what happened to disgaea games over the years that make them bad?

NISA fucked so many things up in the last decade, the D2 PSP DLC was localized terribly and was full of bugs and incomplete, the D1 PC port was a mess at launch and still doesnt work all that well, the whole Ys 8 scandal (xseed had been doing and had the rights for all the previous Ys games, but NISA took over for this one game and the translation was shit, the vita version was never localized [thats the original version btw] and the PC port was a hot mess) and then you have D5 complete PC, where the game was delayed 4 times, the entire game got leaked during beta testing because the demo was the full game with a single file changed so that you couldnt progress and if that wasnt enough, when the game finally came out, it had all of its online and social features completly removed, so it wasnt "complete" as the title suggests

 

[raxadian]

NISA fucked so many things up in the last decade, the D2 PSP DLC was localized terribly and was full of bugs and incomplete, the D1 PC port was a mess at launch and still doesnt work all that well, the whole Ys 8 scandal (xseed had been doing and had the rights for all the previous Ys games, but NISA took over for this one game and the translation was shit, the vita version was never localized [thats the original version btw] and the PC port was a hot mess) and then you have D5 complete PC, where the game was delayed 4 times, the entire game got leaked during beta testing because the demo was the full game with a single file changed so that you couldnt progress and if that wasnt enough, when the game finally came out, it had all of its online and social features completly removed, so it wasnt "complete" as the title suggests

Is even earlier than that, Disgaea 1 for PS2 had a game breaking bug, Disgaea 1 for PSP had a bug that allowed you to beat the game quite easily. And Disgaea DS while it had extra content and Prinny Comentary mode. But the game crashed a lot and in some cases outright deleted your saved game.

 

[osaka35]

dissapointing. I wonder if it just comes down to sales, management, or the nature of the games they made. it'd be nice if they were bought by someone who appreciated their fun spin on things and kept their funding solid. good on them making sure employees get paid first and foremost.