Atelier developer Gust was acquired by Tecmo Koei and, starting with Atelier Ayesha, they have been handling all of their games. The transition with Atelier Ayesha was rocky in the West with the lack of Japanese voiceovers and miscommunication by Tecmo Koei Europe.
However, it seems Tecmo Koei is planning on putting more effort on promoting the Atelier series in the future, since Atelier Meruru Plus: The Apprentice of Arland was shown in their booth instead of being a surprise PlayStation Network release.
We asked Hisashi Koinuma, Executive Vice President of Temco Koei, what their plans are for Gust and how they fit into the company.
“Gust is is a subsidiary of Tecmo Koei now. Basically, they will continue to do what they have been doing up until now,” he replied. “We aren’t going to change their focus. We’ll have them continue the Atelier series and at the same time we will give them opportunities they may not have had on their own.”
“Also, Gust has access to the technologies we’ve been working on. Hopefully, those technical elements and middleware will help them while they are developing games.”
