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News has gone around the internet today saying that Ignition Entertainment is releasing Arc Rise Fantasia in America in Summer 2010. The biggest part of this isn't the simple fact that they've announced it, though. No, it's that this game was previously announced by XSEED Games. Though we hadn't head anything about it from them for a short while (since E3 in early June, I believe), everyone looking forward to it assumed that it was still releasing from them on their planned release date of Winter 2010, but that short period of silence probably should have been a clue. This is pretty worrying, actually; this is the second time they've been wrestled of a title this year.

I'm not sure if we should be worried about the well being of XSEED, since this game and their previously lost title, Muramasa: The Demon Blade, have something in common: they're both Marvelous Entertainment-published titles in Japan. And given how Marvelous Entertainment has a partnership with XSEED, seeing them no longer publishing another one of their titles makes me wonder if their relationship is in jeopardy.

Not to say that this is what's definitely happening. It's probably possible that XSEED stacked their plate a little too high and took on more than they could handle. A small company such as theirs can only handle so much, and with upcoming games like Lunar: Silver Star Harmony, The Sky Crawlers, Fragile, and the recently announced Korg DS-10 Plus on the near horizon, they're definitely keeping themselves busy. They also just came off The Wizard of OZ: Beyond the Yellow Brick Road, Ju-On: The Grudge, Half-Minute Hero. That's a lot of games! More than what Atlus has released recently.

But I'm not so sure that's precisely it. It very well could be a sales and marketing situation. XSEED released Rune Factory: Frontier and Little King's Story for Wii earlier this year, and both of them, regrettably, didn't sell too great. Muramasa's first month sales in America were revealed earlier this week, with the NPD data stating that it sold 35,000 copies in September. That's pretty good for a niche game, and the fact that the announcement of Arc Rise Fantasia's transfer was revealed mere days later may not be a coincidence.

Ignition marketed Muramasa very well, setting up a Facebook page to let users check on the game's status, as well as releasing a plethora of videos around the internet to keep it in the eye of its potential audience. That's quite a bit more than what XSEED does for their games, and Muramasa's sales reflect that. I'd definitely like XSEED to market their games a little better, because I think both of the games would have been in better hands than Ignition's.

That's because word around the internet is that Ignition's localization track record is pretty mediocre. They've only really localized two games thus far themselves, and Lux Pain's localization is pretty notorious for being pretty dire with a plethora of typos and sentence structure errors. Word is that their Muramasa localization is merely OK. They decided to pass on giving it an English dub because of how Japanese it is (which I think is ridiculous), but the game's text, according to fans, is also suspect. XSEED's track record is pretty good, which is something both Joseph and I have both attested to in the past, so hearing them lose games is pretty disheartening. Blue Dragon Plus turned out OK, but a glance at the credits revealed that the game was actually localized by, wouldn't you believe it, XSEED.

Here's hoping Ignition can shape up by the time Arc Rise Fantasia releases next summer -- which would make its release come more than a year after it's Japanese release on June 4th of this year. I don't mind seeing new localization houses form, but I'd like to see them pump out some quality work. Hopefully we can see what they're really capable of with their next release next week: Nostalgia.

Oh, and speaking of Muramasa, anyone looking forward to it in Europe may have a problem finding it at their usual brick & mortar locations. Its publisher Rising Star Games is saying that they're having a problem getting a bunch of retailers to carry it. Online may be your best bet here, so there's still hope of you getting it.