Nippon Ichi Software, the company behind franchises like Ys, Disgaea, and Trails, is aiming to increase its worldwide, simultaneous game releases. The publisher has historically suffered from lengthy delays between a game's Japanese debut and its arrival in Western markets, a practice CEO and NIS America President Kenzo Saruhashi now hopes to change.
Saruhashi explained that in the past, Nippon Ichi and its international subsidiary, NIS America, operated as largely separate entities. This organizational structure hindered the ability to plan for and execute simultaneous launches. "Now we can really say, [we’re operating] as a whole," Saruhashi stated. While acknowledging that factors like resources and logistical challenges still present obstacles to simultaneous releases, he believes that improved cooperation is gradually closing the gap.
The sentiment behind this shift is driven by Saruhashi's perception of a growing demand for Japanese games in the West and, conversely, Western games in Japan. He observes that "those walls are really coming down, and it feels like it doesn’t really matter so much where the game was made."
Despite global economic headwinds affecting the games industry, including tariffs, rising costs, and layoffs, Saruhashi indicated that these challenges are not significantly impacting NIS America's business. He noted that Japanese companies often have a different approach to employment, emphasizing lifelong careers and internal growth. This cultural difference, he suggested, insulates them somewhat from the industry fluctuations seen elsewhere.
"There’s also this feeling like, we have a tendency that we want to help people grow and develop within the company and so it’s been a long-standing thing where whether what the Company is doing is profitable, not profitable, it doesn’t really affect our decisions as much in Japan," Saruhashi commented, expressing a personal fondness for this traditional mindset, though he notes it is becoming less common even in Japan.
Saruhashi also touched upon the company's stance on generative AI in development and NIS America's perspective on Sony's planned discontinuation of physical PlayStation discs in 2028 during his discussions.