The Japanese giant, which recently made a landmark partnership with Washington-based developer Gas Powered Games, will promote and distribute LostWinds across Japan and eventually into other regions of Asia.
Developed by the Cambridge-based UK developer Frontier, LostWinds was one of debut titles for Nintendo’s WiiWare service.
The announcement puts into perspective how far the game has come from its modest roots. LostWinds began life as a post on Frontier’s internal forum in a brainstorming thread called “Game of the Week”. That post’s initial concept of controlling the power of the wind with the Wii remote developed into a fully-fledged platform-puzzler, which launched on Nintendo’s WiiWare service back in May and jumped straight to the top of the UK and US WiiWare charts. Now it is trying to conquer Asia with the backing of the world’s most powerful third-party publishers.
Speaking to Edge, Frontier’s managing director David Walsh explained that the plan for LostWinds is to release the game in Japan first and then decide on other territories across Asia.
“It’s vital to have a strong partner in a territory in which we have no presence,” says Walsh. "Having a partner like Square Enix can only help [LostWinds] in the eyes of the Japanese market, and they certainly know how to promote a game."
“All the development and commercial decisions were in our control and we have tried – and succeeded, we think – to make sure we had the very best possible outcome for each of them.”
Many would argue that a game with the visual style of LostWinds is more likely to strike a chord with the Japanese market, and though Walsh is not one for making rash predictions, he appears confident about how the game will be received. “We know people like LostWinds in the US and EU, both ourselves and Square Enix feel that the gameplay and visual style should work for a Japanese audience.”
Walsh did acknowledge, however, how difficult it usually is for a Western game to break into Japan. “We respect the fact that Japan is a market with different tastes and there are, I’m sure, many other unknowable factors.”
But the Square Enix partnership will certainly amplify Frontier’s chances. “In Europe Square Enix are known for their development-led, quality focus but it's difficult to comprehend the presence and strength they have in their home market if you haven’t seen it at first hand,” Walsh says. “We’ve also been very impressed with the people we have dealt with and how they conduct themselves, particularly as it’s been their first time working with an external developer like Frontier.”
In the West LostWinds has been a commercial and critical success. Edge magazine praised the game highly, explaining in its review that “this is not the type of game we have grown accustomed to on Wii, yet exactly the type of game the console deserves.”