If there\u2019s one thing that fans might expect from a manga publisher, it\u2019s to push into new media via animation or filmmaking, but one of the largest manga publishers in Japan is looking to a different medium altogether with one of its latest ventures, as attendees at PAX West 2025 can discover for themselves, with Shueisha Games demonstrating that gaming can add new audiences \u2014 and an entirely new international base of creators \u2014 to its already extensive library.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe’re a subsidiary company of Shueisha, which is the manga publisher for stuff like One Piece, Dragon Ball, Naruto, and the entire Shonen Jump,\u201d Alonzo Omotegawa, community development associate at the company, tells Popverse on the show floor at the Seattle Convention Center. \u201cOne of the CEOs and the top people on the board was thinking, \u2018Well, we’re good at publication with all these creative mangas and stories \u2014 why can’t we do that for the video game industry, specifically for indies?\u2019 Japan actually doesn\u2019t really have much of a support background for indie developers. We wanted to change that.\u201d<\/p>\n
The company is showing off six titles at PAX West: Bakudo, Sekiro Dodgeball, Atmosfar, No Straight Roads 2, Opus \u2014 \u201ca deep, emotional, story adventure, basically about a guy losing his way and his life, but ended up in this crazy ethereal realm\u2026 think of it as like Spirited Away with camera mechanics\u201d \u2014 and Omotegawa\u2019s personal favorite, ANTHEM#9, which he describes as \u201ca puzzle gem match deck builder, as if the gameplay is going to be like Candy Crush and Slay the Spire had a baby.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOur focus is to bring really talented indie developers based in Tokyo and bring that out to the world,\u201d Omotegawa said. \u201cBut we also don’t want to just, I guess, cut out opportunity just focusing on Tokyo people. We also want it with international people. So, Atmosfar is a developer based in Sweden, Opus and Vapid are developers based in Taiwan, Metronomik is based in Malaysia. Our main focus is basically this saying we have in the company: Shaving off diamonds in the rough and bring that brightness to the world.\u201d<\/p>\n