A report in the Japanese industry news outlet Gamebiz suggests that tri-Ace, developer of the Star Ocean and Valkyrie Profile series, is having financial difficulties. The story is based on tri-Ace’s public financial report for the fiscal year ending in June 2022. [Thanks, GSK!]
In essence, the disclosures show that despite turning an operating profit of more than 171 million yen (about $1.18 million USD), project cancellations, development delays, and a lack of new work coming in resulted in an overall loss of more than 684 million yen (about $4.73 million USD). Sales also amounted to about 1.25 billion yen (about $8.64 million USD), though this figure is down 42% from the previous year. The Gamebiz report suggested that tri-Ace is currently insolvent, or unable to pay off outstanding loans.
Though not specified in the Gamebiz report, one potential source of tri-Ace’s financial woes could be the loss of Star Ocean: Anamnesis, its mobile RPG. Square Enix shut the game down overseas in 2019, and in Japan in June 2021. Prior to that, its only notable credited projects before the upcoming Star Ocean: The Divine Force were the 2017 remaster of Star Ocean: The Last Hope and the 2018 remaster of Resonance of Fate. It is not involved in the development of this year’s Valkyrie Elysium, which was developed by Soleil.
Star Ocean: The Divine Force releases on October 27, 2022, for PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and PC. A playable demo is available on consoles.
