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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[Arolandis]

This has been one of my top 3 favorite japanese developers for a long time now, so this is pretty sad news. I hope everything works out for the company soon.

 

[Sakitoshi]

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.

 

[Deleted member 445482]

I would @ that one guy with the laharl pic but I don't know their name.

 

[Thunder Hawk]

How long until Epic buys them out?

 

[Justinde75]

How long until Epic buys them out?

too niche tbh epic is greedy as hell so it wouldnt do much for them

 

[chaoskagami]

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.

That's NIS America, not NIS.

Either way, I hope to hell they don't go under. I don't know how I can handle another death like Imageepoch. That was *not* pretty, and I love the Disgaea games to death (or 9999999999999 damage, anyways.)

 

[Fugelmir]

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

Sad.

 

[prectorian]

Feel sorry for those Prinnies. Some might get laid off just to stay afloat.

 

[KingVamp]

As others have said, I hope they can pull themselves around. I hope the worse thing that happens is that they are bought by another good company. Not saying it will help much, but they do have more titles they could be porting to PC and newer consoles.

I would @ that one guy with the laharl pic but I don't know their name.

lol

 

[Nimrod-002]

explains why they re-release their games so often, they made Disgea 3 and 4 on the PS3 redundant by remastering them on the vita within a year, as a non vita owner i hated that.

 

[raxadian]

I already suffered something like this when the studio behind Viewfull Joe disappeared.

Oh well, at least they did port Disgaea 5 to the Switch.

 

[warweeny]

Sad news indeed.

I was hoping for a disgaea 2 complete, but if they go down, so does my dream.

 

[Sakitoshi]

That's NIS America, not NIS.

Either way, I hope to hell they don't go under. I don't know how I can handle another death like Imageepoch. That was *not* pretty, and I love the Disgaea games to death (or 9999999999999 damage, anyways.)

you are right, it's easy to mix them up.

still, nis japan has been doing just ok, they have gone too niche for its own good, just look at what they have released the past year. without a heavy hitter to keep them up is no wonder they are struggling.

don't get me wrong, I like them and don't want them to go away, but they brought this by themselves.

 

[kuwanger]

Sad. I like the Nippon art style, but I've so little interest in most their games (Yomawari series looks interesting and the Prinny series looks interesting if brutal). Was going to suggest them teaming up with Nihon Falcom, but I don't think they're in a position to do such a thing. *sigh* Still sort of sad to see them go, even if I think they're too ecchi.

 

[raxadian]

Sad news indeed.

I was hoping for a disgaea 2 complete, but if they go down, so does my dream.

Play the PSP version plus DLC then.

 

[warweeny]

Play the PSP version plus DLC then.

i already did, i want them to improve upon the pc version, you know, not a shitty way to get to land of carnage...

 

[lordpsycho]

Sad news indeed. Played all disgaea games, I've even got platinum trophy on both Yomawari 1-2 and A Rose in the Twilight, they're so engaging and nicely done.

Hopefully they can finish their mobile game, a Disgaea mashup can give them a lot of money. Also if they could merge with Atlus (even though Sega owns it) or IdeaFactory/CompileHeart they could make some really funny crossovers...

 

[brunocar]

Play the PSP version plus DLC then.

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

 

[Hyro-Sama]

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