The future of the Wild ARMS series of video games is now in question. This Steampunk style Wild West RPG may be on the path of retirement because the development team is moving on to new projects. To hard-core fans, this franchise will be missed.
With series creator Akifumi Kaneko leaving Media.Vision to set up a new development team, the focus is shifting. The last project his group worked on is RIZ-ZOAWD (tentatively due for Fall 09 / Winter 10) for the Nintendo DS and it is based on the Wizard of Oz. The announcement came a few days ago in Japan.
Following suit in the move is some of the staff that worked with Kaneko. They have formed a new team called Witchcraft.
While the Wild Arms franchise never became wildly popular in North America as it did in Japan, there is a dedicated fan-base. It does remain as one of the few video games out there sporting the Weird West theme and it was released in the same year as the original Playstation console was.
Produced since the franchise’s introduction in 1996 are six video games, a mobile phone application, a manga, an anime and several soundtracks to its name.
