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[Kobun Heat]

Press release here (Japanese).

I'm really really tired and going to bed, so no translation or anything -- what I'm being told is that it's a take-over bid -- they're going to buy all the stock that's out for sale in the public market.

Space Invader Fantasy Quest XIII ahoy.

 

[Date of Lies]

what does taito make anymore?

 

[Suikoguy]

and thusly the era of industry consolodation continues

 

[demi]

Who's Taito again?

 

[Wario64]

Time to boycott Square-Enix.

 

[mutsu]

Huh??? This seems to be one of those moves that doesn't make any sense...

Taito = bomba ages ago..., ever since they started making Densha de go and milked and milked and milked it.

What does SE see in Taito that we don't see!?

 

[xsarien]

Press release here (Japanese).

I'm really really tired and going to bed, so no translation or anything -- what I'm being told is that it's a take-over bid -- they're going to buy all the stock that's out for sale in the public market.

Space Invader Fantasy Quest XIII ahoy.

I can't wait for Space Invaders RP---dammit, Kohler.

 

[drohne]

that's what they get for leaving tate modes out of the first disc of taito memories, and presumably the second. FU TAITO! ENJOY SUBJUGATION TO SQUENIX!

 

[Kuran]

Chase HQ, Raystorm, Bubble Bobble…

 

[Jonnyram]

Cool... FF and DQ characters coming to a Puzzle Bobble near you soon.
Does Square get rights to any of the Ys games with this?

 

[Date of Lies]

so Square Enix is now Squaresoft+ENIX+Quest+Taito

 

[Rhindle]

Yup, it looks like a tender offer valuing Taito at Y67 billion.

 

[neptunes]

Isn't Taito worth like alot of money?

Wow, just think of all that IP under one entity.

no.2 publisher in japan?

 

[DDayton]

Just tell me this means Taito Arcade collections for Nintendo platforms, and I'll be happy.

 

[demi]

Bubble Bobble is awesome. Good to hear it will possibly be butchered in the near future.

 

[drohne]

hang on, i just remembered that taito published the ps2 port of mushihimesama as well as those psikyo packs. i hope this doesn't interfere with those arrangements. squenix sux.

 

[MightyHedgehog]

Stupid Taito.

 

[Red Scarlet]

Maybe Bub and Bob will have a cameo in KH2.

 

[BobbyRobby]

I want a new, awesome Lufia. Do they still have the rights?

 

[Lo-Volt]

Square-Enix-Quest-Taito banzai! All that is need to complete the Ultramegazoid is Nintendo for the head zoid or something.

 

[RaySpencer]

maybe they will make a Final Fantasy/Bubble Bobble version of Puzzle Fighter or something?

Bubble Fantasy Fighter? Final Bobble Fighter?

 

[lexy]

Farewell Taito. It was fun while it lasted.

 

[Late Stage Marxist]

Double Dragon....Tactics!!

 

[Hurricane_Chris]

Operation Wolf: Barret Edition

Ninja Warriors: The Dragon Quest

 

[Oblivion]

What's Taito got that I ain't got?

 

[whytemyke]

man, they should have so much money saved up by now with all that money they made from all those great games that they HAVENT EVEN RELEASED YET

 

[Lunar Aura]

i for one welcome our new taito overlords!

 

[Mandoric]

They're offering \181000 a share, a 20% premium, with an eye towards gaining a controlling position of 67.00%, 247,900 shares. The main possible obstacle is Kyocera's 133,260 (36.02%) stake.

 

[Smiles and Cries]

ALL YOUR BUBBLES ARE BELONG TO US

 

[Sho Nuff]

MAT MANIA VS ALL STAR PRO WRESTLING

 

[ferricide]

What does SE see in Taito that we don't see!?

(a) tons of IP
(b) a big amusement center business in japan

I want a new, awesome Lufia. Do they still have the rights?

they do. that's why natsume went for CIMA instead of doing a new lufia after the GBC one. taito wanted assloads of money for the license.

a new lufia, if developed by neverland (unlike the GBA one) on a square enix budget = instant throbbing hardon.

Does Square get rights to any of the Ys games with this?

taito only has the rights to the PS2 remakes of 3 - 5. falcom retains the rights to the series, but interestingly, digicube did the 1 & 2 remake for PS2, so they could theoretically sell a huge pack of 1-5 now... heh.

 

[demi]

Square-Enix can heal the scar that Atlus gave me.

 

[Borys]

KINGDOM HEARTS III FEATURING LOTS OF BUBBLES

 

[u_neek]

That means more X360 games from Square Enix

Taito's making that flight game y'know...

 

[john tv]

Taito is big in the arcade/amusement and keitai scenes. They suck ass in home games, obviously.

This was probably related to one of those two areas (or both).

 

[dog$]

noooo

Farewell Taito. It was fun while it lasted.

Basically.
If SE gets to dictate what Taito makes, you can probably say goodbye to any further Taito collections of any sort, as well as a dependable publisher for shooters.

TypeX was also one of the few arcade hardware platforms that were still being supported, too. This is yet another thing I'd bet SE would let die off in a blink. I don't think any good will come of this at all.

 

[Hurricane_Chris]

Taito is big in the arcade/amusement and keitai scenes. They suck ass in home games, obviously.

This was probably related to one of those two areas (or both).

Does Taito run any arcades/amusement places with mostly games instead of redemption games and the pseudo casinos? I remember I used to enjoy their old school arcade games quite a bit back in the day...

Speaking of keitai scenes...John, did you play the Square Enix Final Fantasy (Before Crisis ?is that the correct sub title?) on your keitai? If so was it any good? I got one of au's WIN models and was wondering if I should even bother downloading some of the bigger badder games au and docomo are pushing with WIN and FOMA respectively...altho the FF game seems to be docomo only :-(

 

[ferricide]

for those of you wailing about the death of taito, please tell me, WTF has taito done for ANYONE lately? what has taito done in the last five years that is even worth mentioning? i hear the taito memories pack is pretty cool, but that's a collection of their OLD GAMES.

 

[Jonnyram]

Taito is big in the arcade/amusement and keitai scenes. They suck ass in home games, obviously.

Maybe they'll teach Square how to support the premini-II! I had to cancel my subscription when I got my new phone because I can't download the songs, even though they would work perfectly well.

 

[john tv]

Speaking of keitai scenes...John, did you play the Square Enix Final Fantasy (Before Crisis ?is that the correct sub title?) on your keitai? If so was it any good? I got one of au's WIN models and was wondering if I should even bother downloading some of the bigger badder games au and docomo are pushing with WIN and FOMA respectively...altho the FF game seems to be docomo only :-(

I've never played it, no, but it doesn't look very interesting to me. The world of FF7 is about as exciting to me as watching paint dry. I do have a top-of-the-line FOMA right now, but most of the games I play on it are old-school remakes. I'm currently waiting for the new Dragon Quest II remake to come out for my specific model. Hopefully it'll show up soon...

 

[drohne]

for those of you wailing about the death of taito, please tell me, WTF has taito done for ANYONE lately?

bubble bobble gba, various ps2 psikyo compilations we wouldn't have seen otherwise, ps2 release of mushihimesama, impending ps2 release of raiden III, type-x arcade hardware which plays host to a number of promising 2d shooters, e.g. homura, shikigami no shiro 3, and the aforementioned raiden III...in short, far more than squenix have done for me lately (or ever). they've obviously waned as a developer, but as a publisher they've done a lot that i like.

 

[Kumiko Nikaido]

So will Zuntata make soundtracks for Square-Enix games now?

 

[ferricide]

bubble bobble gba, various ps2 psikyo compilations we wouldn't have seen otherwise, ps2 release of mushihimesama, impending ps2 release of raiden III, type-x arcade hardware which plays host to a number of promising 2d shooters, e.g. homura, shikigami no shiro 3, and the aforementioned raiden III...in short, far more than squenix have done for me lately (or ever). they've obviously waned as a developer, but as a publisher they've done a lot that i like.

well, if they bought taito for the amusement center business, i doubt they'd kill type-X. also, consider that they didn't exactly eviscerate enix (or the other way around, for that matter.)

i mean, there's nothing to suggest that they'll stop any of this stuff, if it's generating revenue. if it isn't, then it was likely to be on the chopping block sooner or later.

but, yeah, as a developer, taito is basically dead.

 

[drohne]

yeah, i don't know what squenix has planned for taito, or if there's any cause for alarm. but until it came up in this thread i hadn't realized how many taito-published games i've really liked this gen.

 

[Izzy]

various ps2 psikyo compilations we wouldn't have seen otherwise

But not a single Toaplan compilation. For shame.

 

[drohne]

i don't know who owns the rights to toaplan's games, but banpresto were the last publisher to be seen with them -- they did toaplan shooting battle on ps1 and batsugun on saturn, and then never followed them up.

 

[Jonnyram]

The scary thing is, they could have bought Capcom for about the same amount too... so I guess it is amusement-related rather than anything else. They already have a pretty good keitai division of their own, I think, and I doubt they need the IP. Amusement is all I can think of as being a plus for them.

 

[Mr Mike]

So have they bought all of Taito, or just a bit so they can eventually have a controlling stake?

 

[Izzy]

i don't know who owns the rights to toaplan's games, but banpresto were the last publisher to be seen with them -- they did toaplan shooting battle on ps1 and batsugun on saturn, and then never followed them up.

Oh, they do own a lot of old Toaplan IPs - Flying Shark, Alcon (Slap Fight), Fire Shark and Hellfire spring to mind.

 

[byproduct]

When a company that I associate with RPGs buys a company that I associate with action games, it makes me feel all yuk in my tummy.