Cult Japanese developer CAVE Co. Ltd. has announced that they are closing down their English language Twitter account. This announcement hints at further contraction in the company.
Hello this is Masa-King from CAVE WORLD. I have a very important announcement.
— CAVE World (EN) (@cave_world_en) January 24, 2014
I know it's sudden, but CAVE World (EN) twitter account will be shut down on Feb 28, 2014.
— CAVE World (EN) (@cave_world_en) January 24, 2014
The latest information will be made by cavegames on twitter in Japanese.
— CAVE World (EN) (@cave_world_en) January 24, 2014
I apologize for the inconvenience and thank you for your many years of support.
— CAVE World (EN) (@cave_world_en) January 24, 2014
Built on the remnants of Toaplan in 1994, CAVE was similarly best at doing one thing and one thing only: making shoot’em up games. They made their name with danmaku shooters, also known as manich shooters or bullet hell shooters for how the screen literally filled with bullets. These games popularized the mechanic of grazing (lightly touching) bullets for bonus points.
While CAVE started out making shooters for arcade, published by Atlus and often even on their own boards, they did not hesitate to bring their shooters to platforms like Playstation, Saturn and Playstation 2. In 2009, they penned agreements to make their famous shooters exclusively on Xbox 360 for the next four years, giving the console a rare edge over its competitors in Japan. As that agreement fizzled out over publishing disagreements, they broke off to bring a game to Playstation 3 and eventually made their way to mobile.
CAVE actually found an opportunity in iOS, rereleasing adapted classics like the 1st 2 Mushihimesama, Espgaluda 2, Deathsmiles and DoDonPachi. Unfortunately, earnings did not match expectations, and as early as 2012, they dropped hints they might be leaving shooters entirely.
The move basically hints at the company’s failure to truly make inroads on mobile worldwide. For fans of CAVE and their shooters, this might mean a retreat from global markets as they cut their losses. That’s the best case scenario, but hopefully, it could mean they can still thrive in their home country, and wont’ have to give up on shmups entirely. More distressingly, of course, this could be a case study for Japanese devs, any console devs, that make a complete transition to mobile.
Image is from Deathsmiles.
