We sit down with t’s with Eastasiasoft, who publishes physical and digital titles and distributes them through Play-Asia.
Eastasiasoft is a Hong-Kong based publisher founded in 2007. For those unfamiliar with the studio, could you provide a brief history as to how the company was formed and its mission?
Eastasiasoft started as developer/publisher in 2007. The first game that we worked on with development partner Sidequest Studios was Söldner-X: Himmelssturmer, which was published on PC and PS3. We’ve been around since the early days of the indie movement. Other games that we published include Söldner-X 2: Final Prototype (PS3/Vita), Rainbow Moon (PS3/Vita/PS4), Lost Sea (Multi) and the upcoming Rainbow Skies (PS4/Vita/PS3).
Apart from working on our own IPs, we have started licensing and publishing games for the Asian market. A lot of our games are available digitally and physically. We work with retail partner Play-Asia.com on the distribution side of our physical releases. Since early 2017, we have released about 30 games in physical format on PS4 and PS Vita. We are currently working on our first Nintendo Switch physical releases.
Over the past decade, your studio has released a multitude of limited edition and regular titles for the PS4 and PS Vita. Could you describe the process in determining which developers to collaborate with and which games receive a limited edition version?
It’s a combination of looking for titles that we believe fit our portfolio, existing partnerships and recommendations from fans or developers we have worked with in the past. At the same time we need to be careful not to over-saturate the market. In terms of physical releases, we’d like to launch no more than an average of about 2-3 games per month. I don’t like the idea of signing hundreds of games and keeping our partners waiting, so we have become quite selective in terms of what we sign. It’s an excellent mix of well-known indies and niche games that we believe could use more attention.
Apart from our physical lineup, we also publish digital titles in Asia and Japan. Our portfolio is growing steadily and we have even secured rights for a few games that we will publish worldwide.
Let’s talk about your business structure! Up until recently, unlike other publishers releasing limited physical copies of games on similar platforms, your methodology appears to be one of an open pre-order system. Members who join an e-mail list receive an advanced link to pre-order upcoming titles within a certain timeframe before it opens up to the general masses. Are there any difficulties with providing this type of reservation process and/or are there plans to change this moving forward?
In terms of our sales channel, we are actually working with online retailer Play-Asia.com and do not sell any physical games directly. Play-Asia is responsible for the distribution of most of our physical releases. Although we exchange ideas, decisions are mainly made by them how the products are marketed and distributed. A reservation list was used for quite some time to better measure the demand in advance, but to simplify the order process, Play-Asia is currently following a more direct sales approach. Apart from online sales, Play-Asia is also responsible for distribution in the local Asian market.
In regard to the PS4 and PS Vita, what are your “wish list” games you’d like to port over physically?
There are many great titles that haven’t been released physically yet. We have recently signed a game that has been on my personal wish list for a long time, which I’m really excited about. We should be able to share more about this mystery PS Vita game sometime in July.
Recently, your company made an announcement on Twitter that production for Switch games would be beginning soon and fans were excited…ourselves included! However, are there any plans to slow or stop PS4 and PS Vita releases?
No, I don’t think that we have any plans to slow down on PS4/Vita. We have an excellent partnership with Sony Asia and are very big PlayStation fans. We have long-term plans and hope to bring more games to the Asian market, digitally as well as physically.
However, the Nintendo Switch is an amazing platform and Nintendo has done so many things right. It’s also great to see how they are embracing the indie industry. For the Nintendo Switch, we have a lot of titles lined up. We launched a few games in Japan digitally (Aqua Kitty UDX and Vesta) and just recently announced Lost Sea as a worldwide digital release. We have at least 10 more games lined up for digital distribution in various regions until the end of 2018.
We have also signed a number of games that we will launch physically. The first game is expected to launch in early July. We hope to share more details about it soon.
Can you tease any of your initial Switch releases, even if it’s just a little clue?
We hope there are a lot of shmup fans on the Nintendo Switch, because several of our upcoming Nintendo Switch physical releases will be shmups.
Can we expect to see Limited and Regular versions of Switch games, similar to your current releases?
We plan to make our first physical Switch release available as regular and limited edition. We have not finalized plans beyond the first release.
If you had a choice, what are the some Switch games Eastasiasoft would love to publish?
I do feel quite excited about the games that we are working on at the moment. The first game that we worked on more than 10 years ago was a shmup, so the genre means really a lot to us. Back then shmups seemed to be a dying breed, but we’ve seen a real renaissance over the last few years, which is really exciting.
Finally, is there anything else you’d like to share today?
Thanks to all our fans for supporting us over the last few years. If you would like to get in touch with us, contact us on Twitter @eastasiasoft.
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