Wrapping up the series of interviews conducted during Japan Expo Paris in July, Crunchyroll News sat down with Arc System Works' CEO Minoru Kidooka to reflect on the company's history and place in the European market, their link with the anime industry and how to make games for everyone. Could you talk a little bit about ASW’s aspirations in Europe? And also about the esports' scene in France? Minoru Kidooka : As you may already know, Arc was founded in 1988, making us 37 years old. Since the end of the 2010s, we've started opening branches all over the world, starting in Korea with the Asia branch and then the American branch in the United States in 2019. The game we had at the time was Guilty Gear , which brought us a lot of recognition, and we saw the enthusiasm among all our users for our games and for Japan, too. Listening to our users' feedback, we decided that we had to be more present abroad for them. With all the events organized around our games, and especially the tournaments in which several of our titles take part, we saw that EMEA was one of the regions offering to take part. This prompted us to step up our presence. In the early 2000s, we started to build alliances with distributors and publishers in Europe, at least in those regions where we didn't have a reach. Once we were able to start communicating with users directly, we realized that it would be really beneficial for everyone if we could reduce that distance and get a little closer to them. That's why we opened our Europe branch last summer. So now, as well as listening more carefully to feedback, we're working hard to have more presence during tournaments and events organized in France around fighting games and video games. Our goal is to grow and strengthen our user community, not just for the fighting game, but also for what's coming to market in the future. Every year, we organize the “Arc World Tour," a fighting game tournament. We want to ensure that the qualifying stages are held close to home so that users can participate without it being too far for them. RELATED: Pick Your Next Anime Based on Your Guilty Gear Playstyle What do you consider to be the specific features/strengths of the European market compared with the Japanese market? Kidooka : Forgive me, because I won't be very precise about the specifics of the European market, but from what we can see and understand all the way from Japan is that the French market has plenty of users who love anime, video games, and also Japanese culture and certain Japanese subcultures, which is very favorable for us. Every country is different and has different preferences for this culture, but what France and Japan have in common is that they take care of the works that have been made in the past. Appreciation, despite the speed at which products are produced and consumed, especially in digital format. Usually, anime becomes games, but how did you perceive the adaptation of the Guilty Gear game into an anime? Kidooka : We mostly saw anime turned into games. But we've already had previous experience adapting a game into an anime, in 2013 with the adaptation of BlazBlue . It's also interesting to do it the other way around, as BlazBlue also had a theatrical adaptation. Unfortunately, we don't have as many possible variations for Guilty Gear , which is a very difficult work to adapt. The [ GUILTY GEAR STRIKE: DUAL RULERS ] anime was made , and it's great that it's not just for fans of the game but also for fans of anime. It took us a while, but we managed to adapt it. We're happy with it, and we hope you like it. Arc System Works is often synonymous with fighting games. Was it challenging to show that the brand does other kinds of games as well? Kidooka : Thanks to all our users, it's true that we're now best known for fighting games. But we'd also like to be known for other games. Since the 90s, we've started to venture into other types of games, and we're continuing our efforts, but unfortunately, it's this particular brand of video games that “sticks” to us a lot, and we haven't yet managed to make a game outside fighting games that would gain even more notoriety than our usual games. In the future, we intend to keep our trademarks: the anime graphic style, the cell shading, the stylized poses and actions of the characters. If we could reuse all these elements and apply them to a game that isn't a fighting game, that would be really great. I’m sure that one day we'll have a game that brings together all the elements we're known for around the world. To some players, Arc System Works seems like a new brand, but you have been around since 1988. How do you keep that fresh and young image of the company? Kidooka : We never stop looking for new ways to express the vision behind our games. Back to the Super Nintendo era, we started with 2D pixels, and with Guilty Gear , we quickly transitioned to 3D with PlayStation. We're adapting, which effectively means we have to keep challenging technology, finding new ways of displaying images, and keeping up with the competition. RELATED: How to Play Guilty Gear in Chronological Order What is the challenge in modernizing the license Double Dragon with the game Double Dragon Revive ? Kidooka : The funny thing about the Double Dragon franchise is that it's almost as old as we are. It’s almost 40 years old now, so there's a lot of history behind it, and there are still fans in North and South America and Europe. Since we acquired the titles from Technos Japan , who were making Double Dragon at the time, we've tried a number of different ways of doing it, some with less success than others… We hope this time will be the right one. You have two more “feminine” releases coming soon ( Dear me, I was… + Damon and Baby ). How to approach that with authenticity after so many years of mostly “manly” fighting games aimed at a seemingly more masculine audience? Kidooka : This goes back a bit to what we talked about earlier, this sort of label of being a fighting game developer that sticks to us, but we've made a lot of games in the past that were for different audiences, such as board games, female-targeted games, mini-games, mobile games… We want to make it clear that there isn't really any type of game that we wouldn't make. We like to try our hand at everything, and if people are interested in making all kinds of games, they can join us and bring their ideas, as shown during the Arc Showcase. Arc System Works isn't just about fighting games; it's about many other types of games as well. Now being a group of companies, we have taken over several studios with more than 280 developers who make games. We have a lot of women on staff who work on all these games. We tend to think of the people who make fighting games as cavemen who program all day long, and while that's somewhat true, there are many women involved in multiple stages of the creation of a number of our games. Which phase of video game production do you enjoy the most, and which do you find the most difficult? Kidooka : When the money comes in and when the money goes out [laughs]. More seriously, I'm not really involved in all the games and all the productions we have, but I have to admit that when we get pitches, when the teams have ideas for new games, it's exciting because we get to imagine what the game could be. We're touching on everybody's dreams a little bit, and people can share all these aspirations. It's really exciting. And the hardest part is when we reach the end of the project and have to submit what is known as the "golden master." This is the final version of the game, which must be completed and verified by the first party. It's the kind of period during which if one thing goes wrong, everything goes wrong. It's perhaps the most stressful time. Thank you for your time. Do you have a final message to your fans in France and more globally in Europe? Kidooka : For those who do know us, we are still the same small company, and now we are present in Europe. Rest assured that we will continue to do our best to collaborate with major companies to broaden our experience and thus gain a little more recognition. We would really like our logo to be recognized for our efforts in future productions. Based on the fighting game developed by Arc System Works, Shigeru Morikawa ( Chrono Crusade ) directed GUILTY GEAR STRIVE: DUAL RULERS at studio SANZIGEN, with series composition by Norimitsu Kaiho, animation character design by Takuya Chanohara, Yuka Hachimori and Joseph Shin and music by Ryo Takahashi ( WIND BREAKER ). Crunchyroll describes the series as such: Sin Kiske, the forbidden child of a human and a magically crafted biological weapon called a Gear, lives in a world where magic has replaced science, and scars from the Gear rebellion remain. Attending his parents’ taboo-breaking wedding, he encounters a mysterious girl with deep hatred for Gears, and their fateful meeting threatens to upend the world once again.
