When it comes to one of the most well-known and most well-respected fighting game developers on the market, there’s little doubt that Arc System Works is easily one of the best. The company has continuously released hit after hit, and has also assisted some franchises in their resurgences. The CEO of Arc System Works, Minoru Kidooka, recently sat down for an interview with IGN where he briefly went over what the company’s foreseeable future was with their IPs, specifically with BlazBlue, and a potential dream collaboration that would have the fans going crazy.
Kidooka was asked about pursuing more collaborative IPs in the near future where he states that while he would like to eventually get there, it’s not a major focus for the company at this time. “I wouldn’t necessarily say it’s a priority at this point, but what we did say at Evo about trying to create more IP collaboration games is… Before Evo, during Evo, and after Evo, we’re still making steps towards that goal,” he said. Arc System Works has taken this route before when they created one of the company’s most successful IP collaborations in their entire library, Dragon Ball FighterZ. The game, which launched in early 2018, was a massive success and is often considered the staple of how to properly take an existing IP from another studio and utilize it within your own system.
Kidooka was then asked what was going on with their other popular series, BlazBlue. Kidooka has mentioned in the past that he wanted to revisit the franchise, but with the company going all in with the seasons on Guilty Gear Strive, those initial ideas were put aside. “One thing that we’re concerned with, one thing that we’re thinking about right now is that we don’t want to really have Guilty Gear and BlazBlue competing with each other. So we are focusing mainly on Guilty Gear. But of course, BlazBlue is a title that the community loves,” Kidooka said. He goes on to state that whenever they return to BlazBlue, they would like to find a way to make a similar impact on bringing the series from its traditional 2D gameplay and transition it to the 3D that Guilty Gear now employs.
The interviewer continues the segment by asking Kidooka about a dream project that would blow the roof off of the internet; One Piece. When asked about doing a collaboration for the aeries, Kidooka gave an answer that, believe it or not, actually offers a small glimmer of hope. “It’s something to think about. I can’t say either way, but it doesn’t mean it’s decided or doesn’t mean it’s outside the realm of possibility.” In other words, while it’s more than likely a pipe dream, there’s still a small chance of an Arc System Works x One Piece title coming into existence. That in an of itself is more than enough to get us excited, at least to some extent.
As we already mentioned, the company has a wide variety of fighting titles in their catalog. Despite this, Arc System Works is actually one of the smaller studios within the video game industry, something that Kidooka ends the interview with. “You really have to understand that we’re a small company. We can’t take up any project that comes across, we have to consider resources,” he said. It’s nothing short of amazing that the company has not expanded all that much in terms of overall manpower, and yet there still bringing out quality fighting titles year after year. Guilty Gear Strive has been no exception, as it became the studio’s first original title to surpass 1 million units sold and has since become a main staple in the fighting game community.