The long and winding road.
There was a time when Level-5 was pretty darn hot; the Professor Layton series developed a devoted following, and there was a major sales breakthrough when Yo-kai Watch took off in Japan and was rolled out globally; more recently the development side of the business earned praise for its Ni no Kuni titles, too. The publisher / developer’s localisation teams also had strong moments, and the world got to enjoy the zany soccer antics of the Inazuma Eleven series.
Unfortunately there have been concerning indications of problems at Level-5 for some time, especially for its business outside of Japan. Talk of a staff exodus started in late 2018, and the company’s output has included a number of delay announcements; it seems localisation out of Japan will be heavily dependent on deals with partners, too, as Level-5 has reportedly reduced its America-based operations to a skeleton crew. It’s clear, from the varied and consistent reports, that the company is facing challenging times, or at the very least may have significantly downsized.
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
