Last weekend, Internet denizens revealed massive list of unreleased titles stored in the registry of Valve’s PC digital distribution platform, Steam. Among the leaked titles were some of Japanese developer Arc System Works’ (ASW) more popular games, such as Guilty Gear Xrd -SIGN-. ASW all but confirmed these leaks when they revealed late last night that they will be releasing five distinct titles on Steam up until Summer 2016: Guilty Gear Xrd -SIGN-, Melty Blood Actress Again Current Code, Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late, BlazBlue Chrono Phantasma Extend, and River City Super Sports Challenge ~All Stars Special~. Whether ASW was spurred by the leaks to announce the titles now, or whether the announcement simply coincides with the option to permanently remove games from your Steam library (a Steam feature that was added last Friday and is a key component in the registry leaks), is unknown.
Guilty Gear Xrd -SIGN- is the first of these titles to release on Steam. In fact, it is releasing tomorrow, on December 9. This reveal confirms a leak on the Korean Game Rating and Administration Committee’s website last month, which listed a rating for a then-unannounced PC port of -SIGN-. -SIGN- is the second-latest installment in ASW’s Guilty Gear fighting game series. Xrd‘s most recent iteration, Guilty Gear Xrd -REVELATOR-, is currently only available in Japanese arcades, though it will release on Japanese and overseas consoles in Spring 2016. Whether or not -REVELATOR- will see a PC release as well has yet to be announced.
Million Corporation’s River City Super Sports Challenge ~All Stars Special~ appears to be the next in line for ASW’s Steam titles, with a December 2015 release date. The sole non-fighting game in the announcement, ~All Stars Special~ is an action/sports game that belongs to the long-running Kunio Kun series, which is perhaps best known for the cooperative beat-em-up River City Ransom (known as Downtown Nekketsu Monogatari in Japan).
ASW’s other popular fighting game series, Blazblue, is then set for a new release on Steam with BlazBlue Chrono Phantasma Extend in February 2016. Like Xrd -SIGN-, Chrono Phantasma Extend is the second-most recent title in the series, with Blazblue: Central Fiction having released in Japanese arcades last month.
Finally, two titles by Japanese developer French Bread are releasing in Summer 2016: Melty Blood Actress Again Current Code and Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late. Both of these games are the latest version in their respective series. Co-developed with visual novel developer Type-Moon, Melty Blood’s appearance on Steam is a welcome sight to many fans of the series, as it has received various and revisions since its humble beginnings in 2002 as a visual novel-cross-fighting game for PC platforms. In fact, it is curious that the game had never been ported to Steam up until this point.
ASW plans to get the ball rolling as soon as possible with Xrd -SIGN-’s release tomorrow. In the meantime, fans will undoubtedly be keeping their eyes peeled for any future ASW releases not mentioned in the announcement as the months march on.