Purveyors of fine Japanese gaming ephemera Xseed have been coy about their plans for 2013 so far. With the exception of the January release of Corpse Party: Book of Shadows and the March release of Pandora’s Tower on Nintendo Wii, the publisher’s swansong on the platform, the rest of the company’s calendar has been a mystery. Xseed shed light on its upcoming releases on Thursday morning, finally confirming that it is in fact the US publisher for Grasshopper Manufacture and Goichi “Suda 51” Suda’s new game, Killer is Dead.
It came out on Jan. 23 that Xseed had registered a number of suspicious domain names, including killerisdead-game.com, that suggested it would publish Suda’s next title, a follow up to the “Assassin series” that includes Killer 7 and No More Heroes. Xseed refused to confirm that it would publish the game at the time though, and the title’s future in the US was further complicated on Wednesday when GungHo Online Entertainment, a competing publisher, had acquired Grasshopper Manufacture. In confirming that it’s bringing the game over, Xseed president Shinichi Suzuki said that he “personally selected” Killer is Dead for release in the US.
Killer is Dead will release this summer, around the same time as its Japanese release.
Never a company to shy away from handhelds, Xseed also plans to bring two PlayStation Vita originals to the US as well. Particularly notable is Ys: Memories of Celceta, a game that’s part remake and part sequel to Ys IV. Memories of Celceta is actually creator Falcom’s very first game for the PS Vita. Falcom also wasn’t the original makers of Ys IV, even though it’s responsible for the Ys series, so this will be the first time the company puts its stamp on that chapter of the franchise.
Xseed will also bring Valhalla Knights 3 to the PS Vita this year as well as Rune Factory 4 for the Nintendo 3DS.
Absent from Xseed’s release schedule are any new PSP games, despite the fact that Japanese game developers continue to support Sony’s nearly decade old handheld. While Xseed hasn’t confirmed it, Corpse Party: Book of Shadows may be the last PSP game Xseed localizes for the US, and possibly the last new PSP game to come to the country.
