Bien joué! Guilty Gear Strive developer Arc System Works opens French office

Arc System Works - the Japanese developer behind various popular games including Guilty Gear Strive and Dragon Ball FighterZ - has announced in a blog post that it's opening a new branch in Paris, France. This office will handle a variety of work, including new IP and Business development, marketing, customer service, licensing, and localisation.

This comes as the company celebrates its 36th anniversary. Its next game, a partnership with Bushiroad Games, is set to be HunterXHunter NenXImpact, which has had a European release revealed alongside this announcement of expansion from its creator. It's not like that bit comes as a huge surprise though, as Arc System Works has been releasing games in Europe for years. Nonetheless, it's a bit of extra crème inside this chocolate éclair, so to speak.

There's more NenXImpact information too in this blog post, including the company's intent to reveal several additional characters for the game throughout the year, up until its eventual release some time in 2024. One of these characters will be shown off at Evo 2024, later this month. Demos for the game will also be playable at Evo, as well as in Paris' Japan Expo, so be sure to pop down there if you're in town and want to try it out yourself.

As the developer behind several good 2D fighting games, it's nice to see the company able to expand out, especially at a time that's seeing numerous game development studios have folks laid off or shutter. Here's hoping the upward momentum continues!