Lumines, Every Extend Extra, Meteos, Rez HD - the games for which Q Entertainment is best known seem emblematic of a small, boutique developer. But look a little deeper and you’ll notice the studio has also co-developed Ninety-Nine Nights and the DS version of Peggle, and published the PS3 MMOG Angel Love Online.

This wide breadth of Q Entertainment’s business is what CEO and co-founder Shuji Utsumi was keen to highlight during an online conference the company held on September 9. The face of the company, founding partner Tetsuya Mizuguchi, was not present - his involvement was restricted to a short video message at its end in which he stated that he was working with Ubisoft on a project called Eden.

_{^{Rez and Lumines creator Tetsuya Mitzuguchi}}

Still, Q Entertainment’s boutique identity still shone forth, with Utsumi stating how small a company it remains. To that end, it was hard not to draw comparisons with Square Enix’s do for Final Fantasy XIII just the day before – comparisons that made it feel like a refreshing return to the energetic and informal days of the Japanese game industry 10 years ago, with games displayed on a hotch potch of different consoles, laptops and mobile phones on tables around the small space.



Not that Q Entertainment has its eyes on the past. More than half of its business is now focused on its growing online division, Q Online. It was the first company, at least in Japan, to launch a MMORPG on the PS3, Angel Love Online. The game has become something of a blueprint for the form in the region: taking on South Korean titles and adapting them for consoles and the Japanese market. After a year in service, Q and SCEJ’s Tomikazu Kirita shared some of their experiences.


_{^{Shuji Utsumi (middle) and Tomikazu Kirita (right)}}

The free-to-play, microtransaction-supported, 2D MMORPG has been downloaded over 123,000 times since its launch on PS3 in September 2008 (it was first launched on PC in December 2006), with SCEJ reporting that downloads have held at a broadly constant rate of around 5000 a month.

As Q found out, there’s a big difference between Angel Love Online’s PC and PS3 players. On PS3, female users represent only 9 per cent, while on the PC they make up 49 per cent. As Kurita acknowledged, there is still a lot of work ahead to encourage female players to start looking at PS3. For that reason, Sony is very much committed to supporting Q’s online efforts on its platform, with both companies working closer around the game with special XMB themes and items for Home.


_{^{Angel Love Online sequel Angel Senki}}

For Q, the next step for Angel Love Online is already in motion in the form of Angel Senki, its sequel. Again, it’s a MMORPG with a mix of 3D and 2D, free and supported by microtransactions. This time, however, Q has adapted the interface of the original PC version to better suit a game console. The game is due to come into service on September 16.