Just wondering what is the relationship/process that xseed has with Falcom.

[sleepygaymer]

Just wondering if we could get a little insight into how the relationship between xseed and Falcom came to be. Did someone contact Falcom from your company and say you wanted to bring their games to the US? Did Wyrdwad beg and plead for your company to do it? Do you have an agreement for a set number of games? Or is it a general license to be able to translate their games? How interested in Falcom in having their games available to a western audience? Do they know how rabbid their fans in the West are? Finally does xseed have any influence as to what games they would like to translate next? Is Falcom open to or does xseed even have any interest in creating a remake of their own? Is it possible for xseed to add elements or parts to a game?

I think that's enough questions for now.

[Ryos]

Don't know the rest of your answers, but per the Facebook response, there are no developers on the XSEED staff - consequently, any needed modifications would have to be done by the original company or be outsourced. I'm always curious about what all goes on behind the scenes in terms of licensing, but companies tend to be mum on that - I think primarily due to potential issues with current/future licensors. XSEED does seem to have a very good working relationship with the Japanese companies.

[Wyrdwad]

Yeah, there's a lot I can't answer, but I can say that the partnership occurred before I started at XSEED (in fact, the partnership is part of the reason I was hired, as XSEED really wanted someone on staff who was extremely familiar with Falcom's games), and that it's a full-on partnership -- which, on our end at least, basically means that we get first dibs on translating any Falcom game, and that Falcom will work with us to get their games translated and published in the western world whenever they have the resources available to do so.

Falcom's been an absolute joy to work with so far, and we see no reason why this relationship can't continue indefinitely. We really hope it does, too -- in my admittedly short time working at XSEED, I've been very impressed with how quickly Falcom responds to our emails, how accommodating they are of our requests, and how generally sociable and competent (and dedicated) they seem. I've been in the video game industry for about 7 years at this point, and Falcom seems like one of the most "together" companies out there -- no fuss, no muss, just a talented group of awesome developers. (:

I guess the best short answer to all your questions is: Think of our relationship with Falcom like Atlus' relationship with Sting, or NIS America's relationship with GUST. It's a very similar situation.

-Tom

[Shizuka]

NIS America with Gust? I thought it'd be more like NIS America with NIS and Atlus US with Atlus JP, but that'd be crazy, as you're not named Falcom America or Falcom US.

[Chaosblade]

So basically if something doesn't get released here, now we know who to blame!

But seriously, that sounds like an awesome partnership. Hopefully it's worthwhile for you guys and lasts a long time.

[Ryos]

NIS America with Gust? I thought it'd be more like NIS America with NIS and Atlus US with Atlus JP, but that'd be crazy, as you're not named Falcom America or Falcom US.

They aren't official subsidiaries or anything of the like. They have a partnership that means that they work with each other to bring the titles from those companies here. Sometimes these partnerships don't turn out well for one reason or another (I don't know what happened with Marvelous, but that's unfortunate because I like their games and XSEED's localizations). Most licensing agreements are done for a much more limited situation like one game at a time.

[macirex]

How much does a game needs to sell in order to be profitable for you and falcom?

[Wyrdwad]

How much does a game needs to sell in order to be profitable for you and falcom?

A sea of smiles and a bucket of dollars, of course!

(I'm not really comfortable discussing financials, though you may rest assured that so far, our Falcom partnership has proven a good deal both for us and for Falcom. I believe I said this on some other board at some point, but it bears repeating: "We're not all going to be buying luxury mansions with our massive profits, but neither are we going to be living on the street.")

-Tom

[Peytral]

I just hope the localizing of SC doesn't change that for the worse.

[Wyrdwad]

So do we! (:

-Tom