Arc System Works has reportedly just cancelled a Guilty Gear game.
As reported by Insider Gaming, this cancellation occurred in the span of a few weeks. This puts production of a new Guilty Gear project ‘back to the drawing board’, but their source did not share no further details.
We do want to point out that this also includes the possibility that Arc System Works was working on a spinoff Guilty Gear game that’s not a fighting game. In 2006, Arc System released Guilty Gear 2: Overture, an action game and the only non-fighting game in the franchise so far.
Still, we certainly can’t avoid looking at this in terms of Arc System Works overall fighting game output. Their last game in the series, Guilty Gear Strive, launched in 2021, but received its most recent port on the Nintendo Switch this year. On the other hand, Arc System Works also just announced its latest fighting game, Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls. That game is being published by Sony Interactive Entertainment, and is highly likely to be a PlayStation and PC exclusive.
Two weeks ago, Arc System Works showed their latest projects in their Arc System Works Showcase event, and Guilty Gear was definitely conspicuous in its absence. Guilty Gear’s director, Daisuke Ishiwatari, revealed his latest project, a AA action game called Damon and Baby. While we didn’t realize it at the time, Ishiwatari also gave a rationale for why they studio isn’t making Guilty Gear games at this time.
To quote Gematsu’s translation:
The game market is tough now. To overcome that Arc System Works has launched a new project. It’s an action game project… Let me explain. Arc System Works is a fighting game company. I’m sure most of you recognize us as so. However, to achieve a new brand, where we are known for quality mid-range action games, we decided to establish a new pillar outside of fighting games.
You might be wondering why I specifically use the term mid-range. There are many reasons, but one is that even creators themselves can enjoy striving for their dreams. In recent years, with AAA blockbusters and excellent indie titles gaining popularity, it has become extremely risky for companies to create new series. This has led to dwindling opportunities for young creators to have their own projects. We feel the need to focus our efforts towards the future a decade from now, such as to build stable development schemes and to accumulate technology and know-how.
Our flagship title Guilty Gear has now become a million selling copy work—but its very first installment was a small-scale project. From there, over many long years, we built a foundation that could guarantee a certain level of quality in the fighting games genre. Similarly we hope to take a step with this project that will eventually lead to bigger dreams. And precisely because they are mid-range titles, this will create many opportunities to produce many titles and cultivate many creators, and we hope that will become one of the future values of Arc System Works.
This all seems to indicate that Arc System Works may not have the resources on hand at the moment to make a Guilty Gear fighting game, at least not at the scale that they would want to do. We wish Arc System Works the best in the near future, as we’re sure that Japanese game studios are also struggling with the current unfavorable conditions in the video game market, even if it hasn’t led to mass layoffs seen elsewhere.
