Apart from detailing The Idolmaster: Starlit Season‘s gameplay and gameplay changes from previous console titles, the special feature in the latest issue of Famitsu also includes an interview with series producer Youzou Sakagami and Starlit Season producer Hayato Kutaragi. In particular, they talk about what made them decide to release the latest game on PC via Steam for the very first time.
Here’s the highlights below:
This marks the The Idolmaster series’ first release on PC as well. Why?
Hayato Kutaragi, producer: “We recognize that Steam on PC is a platform that is widespread and commonly used overseas. The Idolmaster is a game that has mainly been supported by Japanese fans, but recently support has begun to expand bit by bit overseas, with the number of Producers growing overseas as well. If we localize the game for overseas fans on PC, we’ll be able to have even more Producers be able to enjoy the game – thinking that, we decided upon not just a PlayStation 4 release, but an Asia release on PC as well.”
Youzou Sakagami, series producer: “With the game being made via Unreal Engine for the first time in the series, our staff is quite proficient and used to the engine, and we were supported by the fact that it would be easier to go multi-platform on PC and the like [thanks to using the engine].”
Please note that the Asia release of the game is being released in Taiwan, with only Japanese and Traditional Chinese confirmed at this point. While Bandai Namco has begun to do localizations for English-speaking audiences via Asia releases like with the Super Robot Wars series, an English release is not confirmed at this point in time.
The Idolmaster: Starlit Season will be released for the PlayStation 4 and PC in Japan in 2020. You can check out the full revealed list of idols, as well as more screenshots, in our previous post here.
