While Atelier Ayesha had a bumpy release in the West, Gust’s games seem to be doing well in Japan with Tecmo Koei as the publisher. Gust was acquired about a year and a half ago. Since the two companies are used to working together now, Siliconera asked Hisashi Koinuma, Executive Vice President of Tecmo Koei, how Gust fits into the company now.
"Gust is a subsidiary of Tecmo Koei. Basically, we have them continuing doing what they’ve been doing up until now. We are not going to change what they are doing," Koinuma reassured. "They will continue the Atelier series and at the same time we will give them opportunities to do what they couldn’t have done on their own. Since they are part of the Tecmo Koei group, Gust has access to various technology and middleware we have been developing which will help them develop more titles."
One of the opportunities is having crossovers with other Tecmo Koei titles like Warriors Orochi 3 Ultimate which has Sterk from Atelier Rorona as a playable character.
We also asked Koinuma about their plans for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. So far, Tecmo Koei has not announced any titles for next gen consoles.
"We are a multiplatform company and do want to release games on all of the platforms. We are open to the new challenges PS4, Xbox One, and Wii U bring and are hoping to try out new things. At the same time, we don’t know when the PS4 and Xbox One will be released in Japan yet. Once we know the timing we can schedule releases for those consoles," Koinuma commented.
What titles are they developing? "It’s a secret," Koinuma laughed.
