Treasure vows to never make mobage, new game TBA in 2018

[Durandal]

http://segabits.com/blog/2017/10/30/tre ... cial-games

Treasure President teases announcement for 2018, vows never to work on social games
October 30, 2017 by George

The last time we heard about Treasure, we ran a rumor that the company was going to stop making new games. Is it true? So far it has stayed true since the companies last ‘new game’ was Gaist Crusher God which was released back back in 2014. Since then Treasure Games hasn’t made a single brand new game. Rumors suggested that the company was going to continue as an IP holding company. Now according to a Japanese twitter user, Treasure President Masato Maegawa stated that he has an announcement coming in 2018 and that Treasure games won’t make a social game (usually mobile games) as long as he lives.

“I’ll never work on social games for as long as I live! I’ll have something to share next year” – Treasure Games President Masato Maegawa
Maegawa also complained that there was a total lack of communication at SEGA during the Mega Drive, especially during the time they developed Yu Yu Hakusho. He also revealed that Gunstar Heroes shipped 70k units in Japan and 200k abroad. Said the initial 10k print run in Japan sold out fast. Treasure Games’ president also wished that SEGA would have their own ‘Mega Drive Mini’ much like what Nintendo offers.

According to twitter user @gosokkyu, this lines up with what he has heard about from Treasure, that most publishers are only wanting them to work on mobile or ‘social’ type games. I’m glad to see a Japanese developer that doesn’t want to succumb to mobile gaming. Some developers just don’t transition over well and since a lot of Treasure Games are about the gameplay, I don’t think it would work out on mobile. But hey what do you think this announcement will be? Are you excited? Sound off in the comments.

The spirit lives on.

Might have to be moved to off-topic depending on the new game.

[Deadliar]

Something something keep your dignity

[AntiFritz]

I doubt they'd ever make a shmup again. They haven't for 13 years.

[ciox]

They could probably slap something together using the updated Ikaruga codebase, but I doubt it, I don't think they have any creative people that worked on shmups with them.

[EmperorIng]

Well, their last big-budget game was Sin and Punishment 2 (two generations ago!!), and that was one of the best games. I am really hoping there is a spark to make another action game like that.

[munchiaz]

Well, their last big-budget game was Sin and Punishment 2 (two generations ago!!), and that was one of the best games. I am really hoping there is a spark to make another action game like that.

Such an amazing game. Hope we get something just remotely close to how good that game was

[guigui]

Well, usually 3 comes after 2, so Sin & Punishment 3 ?

[mamboFoxtrot]

I don't think Treasure has ever made a third game in any of their series (except maybe some licensed fare), so probably not.

Either way, a new Treasure game sounds like good news, though!

[pegboy]

How is this company even around still, do they even make games? I thought it had been dead for at least a decade.

[iconoclast]

I don't think Treasure has ever made a third game in any of their series (except maybe some licensed fare), so probably not.

Either way, a new Treasure game sounds like good news, though!

There are 3 or 4 Bangai-O games. Kinda weird how that's the series they kept going back to.

[Xyga]

We need a refill of visualshock speedshock soundshock please, Maegawa do something you lazy ass.

[Durandal]

There's a faint glimmer of hope within me that if Sega were ever to release a Sega Mega Drive Mini, Treasure would strike a deal with Sega to have a new complete version of Alien Soldier as a launch title.

[mamboFoxtrot]

I don't think Treasure has ever made a third game in any of their series (except maybe some licensed fare), so probably not.

Either way, a new Treasure game sounds like good news, though!

There are 3 or 4 Bangai-O games. Kinda weird how that's the series they kept going back to.

Oh, right! I wasn't considering that b/c I keep thinking Bangai-O HD is just a port of the Dreamcast version, but it's not

[BulletMagnet]

How is this company even around still, do they even make games? I thought it had been dead for at least a decade.

I kinda wonder which developer holds the "hey everyone, we're back!" record between releases; I always figured Vanillaware from Princess Crown to Odin Sphere had to be near the top, but I'm sure someone more versed in this sort of thing could do better, heh.

[Sumez]

I don't think Vanillaware were their own company when they made Princess Crown. They started out as a dev team within Atlus.

I'm kinda puzzled too, though. How do employees of Treasure make a living while they apparently aren't working on any games? Are they doing "shadow coding" for other companies?

[Xyga]

Many businesses in poor health after a bubble burst end up leaving their core job behind and start selling their knowledge and skills as services to other businesses in order to survive, it's scary.

[Oniros]

I'm kinda puzzled too, though. How do employees of Treasure make a living while they apparently aren't working on any games? Are they doing "shadow coding" for other companies?

I'd hazard a guess that this is what they do. Game development is risky and work like this could pay the bills without much pressure. That being said, I don't believe a word of this interview until they show some receipts.

[Necronom]

“I’ll never work on social games for as long as I live! I’ll have something to share next year” – Treasure Games President Masato Maegawa

Radiant Silvergun finally on Steam!...let's hope

[KAI]

More puzzle games, yay...

[Goompaolo9500]

Radiant Silvergun finally on Steam!...let's hope

I agree but I also wish that there will be Radiant Silvergun and Ikaruga for iOS!

[WarpZone]

Don't get your hopes up for a new game (much less a shmup). This could just be an announcement that their other XBLA games are coming to Steam or something similar.

I don't think they have any creative people that worked on shmups with them.

Nakagawa was there at least up through 2013 or so (lead programmer of both S&P's, Ika, and GV). Curious if he ended up anywhere else, but otherwise most of their key staff are long gone. At this point I think an original shmup from M2 is far more likely, although Ubusuna can't seem to get any traction either.

[Gamer707b]

I only got into Treasure games maybe 5 , 6 years ago. Since then Ive gobbled all their games I could. Either way, a new game sounds awesome. Maybe another r n gun? Or something else like say Michief Makers. Who knows.

[Sumez]

Maegawa is a cool dude. I doubt he's been too involved in actual development for decades, but I think he's probably still able to influence a game a lot even working as a producer, which has been his role since he started the company.

If Nakagawa is also still at the company, they should have the potential to whip up at least one last great thing.

[d0s]

i wish treasure would vow to make a new sin&punishment game on modern hardware. their arcade STGs have always been whatever but that series is fucking spectacular

[Some-Mist]

Well, their last big-budget game was Sin and Punishment 2 (two generations ago!!), and that was one of the best games. I am really hoping there is a spark to make another action game like that.

actually one of my favorite games of all time. so I'm on board with it being S&P3

[trap15]

How is this company even around still, do they even make games? I thought it had been dead for at least a decade.

As others have insinuated, they do contracting work. That's how most "how are they alive?" companies are, indeed, still alive.

[mamboFoxtrot]

What if its a stretch panic sequel for the Switch? "With the HD Rumble, you can really feel the enemy's enormous breasts(?) as you stretch them!"
I'll see myself out now

[pegboy]

How is this company even around still, do they even make games? I thought it had been dead for at least a decade.

As others have insinuated, they do contracting work. That's how most "how are they alive?" companies are, indeed, still alive.

So they basically subsist off of doing uncredited coding jobs? In other words, you won't see any of this work saying "developed by treasure" or the like? I'm not sure if this is more or less depressing than the company just folding up shop.

[STGAlmond]

As some others said I hope this means Radiant Silvergun finally gets ported to steam too. When Ikaruga came out for steam I was a bit underwhelmed, but it seems to be a really good port. I played it on the 360 and regretted getting it over Radiant Silvergun. Then I bought it on steam with hopes that Radiant Silvergun was just around the corner since I no longer had an xbox.

Just the other day I looked at the treasure acccount on steam and it had been over 1000 days since it was online. Made me so sad

[GSK]

How is this company even around still, do they even make games? I thought it had been dead for at least a decade.

As others have insinuated, they do contracting work. That's how most "how are they alive?" companies are, indeed, still alive.

So they basically subsist off of doing uncredited coding jobs? In other words, you won't see any of this work saying "developed by treasure" or the like? I'm not sure if this is more or less depressing than the company just folding up shop.

In this case, the company still exists because there are very few people still there--it's easy to keep the lights on when you don't have to worry about paying anybody.

Treasure's always had an open-door policy and a lot of important former members have been and gone, but as far as I know, pretty much everyone one would consider a core member is accounted for somewhere else, with the exception of Nakagawa (no idea) and NAMI (notoriously private and, as far as I know, entirely freelance).

Every lower-to-mid-tier Japanese developer with a history in console games will either get roped into contract work for A-tier publishers or be bought out for work on a mobile game or some other would-be growth market like VR. In that sense, CAVE is lucky to have their own hit social game that broadly reflects their own desires--if they didn't, they'd be chained to some other publisher's crappy gacha game until they died.