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Rune Factory developer Neverland declares bankrupcy

Future of the Rune Factory series currently unknown.

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Rune Factory developer Neverland has declared itself bankrupt.

The Japanese developer announced it would be closing down on its official site (translated via Siliconera), saying that "performance has been sluggish due to changes in the business environment in recent years, and that their financial status has deteriorated considerably."

Attempts to find additional sources of funding also proves unsuccessful, the company added.

The studio is most famous for its work on the Rune Factory series. The games have been released across Wii, DS, 3DS, and PS3, and are a unique spin-off of gardening sim Harvest Moon, where you can tend to a garden by battling and defeating monsters. The developer also worked on the Lufia games.

The developer was said to be working on Rune Factory 5, although it is now not known if that game will ever see the light of day.

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Avatar image for ellieakalizxxx
ellieakalizxxx

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ellieakalizxxx

I know it lots to ask for but why just put as a download on the e shop

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zpluffy

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zpluffy

They'll be doing okay if it wasn't for the fact that most of their sh!its end up being in the emulator roms.

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Joedgabe

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Joedgabe

Rune factory.. NOOOOOOOOOO </3

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clqtte

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clqtte

No more Rune Factory and Lufia, hopefully NOT?

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Fuzaki

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Fuzaki

I'm not exactly surprised considering the appeal of Rune Factory to the majority of modern audiences. I am still unhappy to hear that one of my enjoyed developers has bankrupted, especially when considering some of the other developers out there.

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Thanatos2k

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Thanatos2k

There goes any chance of a real Lufia game being made.

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darkfiercelink

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darkfiercelink

why rune factory!? its so awesome...

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TalesOfGod

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TalesOfGod

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

Not Rune Factory! T_T

Lufia, you will be missed!

(Honestly, I've never heard of a Rune Factory for PS3. Was that supposed to be Rune Factory 5?)

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deactivated-591b180895357

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deactivated-591b180895357

<< LINK REMOVED >>

When I said that it should stay with Marvelous, I meant that it should go to Marvelous, but not to the subsidiary of Neverland, but go to the house studio that creates Harvest Moon, keep them consolidated and share some ideas again, seeing that Rune Factory started as a spinoff of Harvest Moon.

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Avatar image for deactivated-591b180895357
deactivated-591b180895357

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deactivated-591b180895357

<< LINK REMOVED >>

Rune Factory: Tides of Destiny. It was also released for Wii. In the Eastern region it was known as Rune Factory: Oceans.
Rune Factory: Frontier was a Wii exclusive.

These games are not directly in the canon of the numbered Rune Factory games, but I would argue they are just as fun if not more fun than the handheld counterparts.

I hope someone picks this up, ala the THQ fire sale, and continues to do this, I wouldn't see why Natsume wouldn't pick it up again, or XSeed (Even though they mostly publish), maybe give it back to Marvelous AQL (who did RF4)

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TalesOfGod

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TalesOfGod

<< LINK REMOVED >><< LINK REMOVED >> Oh really?

It's good that there might still be hope for Rune Factory as RF4 sold quite a bit of copies on the 3DS.

I have to check out Tides Of Destiny so thanks for the reply! ^_^

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Avatar image for TheCyborgNinja
TheCyborgNinja

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TheCyborgNinja

If MS is still trying to accomplish something with its hardware in Japan, this property is probably a cheap acquisition it can add to its software stable...

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Avatar image for AyatollaofRnR
AyatollaofRnR

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AyatollaofRnR

I hope Rune Factory 4 will still make it to Australia sometime.

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Daian

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Daian

It always sucks hearing about devs going out of business.

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TheCyborgNinja

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TheCyborgNinja

<< LINK REMOVED >> Unless they suck, like Silicon Knights... I still feel bad for the guys out of a job, regardless of the company's quality.

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TheGreatPhoenix

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TheGreatPhoenix

this makes me such a sad panda..... :(

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eric_neo3

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eric_neo3

The studio is most famous for its work on the Rune Factory series.


Actually most famous for the Lufia series


Just how does one go broke with so many good series?

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TheCyborgNinja

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TheCyborgNinja

<< LINK REMOVED >> It's extremely odd, I agree. They have popular franchises and don't seem to make anything with a huge budget. It must just be mismanagement.

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AyatollaofRnR

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AyatollaofRnR

<< LINK REMOVED >> Never knew that. I loved Lufia 2 on SNES.

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Revenant_K

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Revenant_K

Very funny, Rune Factory 4 was a big success to the company and they went bankrupt in one and half a year later. How the hell did that happen???

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Jshaw71

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Jshaw71

Though I have not played the rune factory games, this is sad news, that another game devolper has filed banrupcy, Hopefully, they'll be picked up by someone, and RF 5 completed, but doubtful, sadly...

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xGr4ffitix

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xGr4ffitix

Aw man..I loved these games..Depressing news..Everyone was all 'Play Final Fantasy! Play Gears of War! Play Halo!' And I'd be like 'Play Rune Factory!' 'The hell is that?' Lol. Just one of the best games ever! Nothing like milking your cow, and then taking it to help you kick some ass. Right?

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telaros

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telaros

I should of bought them new instead of used TT_TT series was amazingly entertaining with a mix of action rpg and date sim. Most awesome series.

I'm totally being Rune 4 right now!

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sortajan

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sortajan

NooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooOOOOOOOOOOOooooooOOOOOOOOOoooooooooOOOOOOOOO


This is unfortunate.

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BrunoBRS

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BrunoBRS

i'm not sure i get it. doesn't natsume hold the rights for everything harvest moon? wouldn't that mean that they could just find another developer to work on the games? (or hell, do it themselves?)

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sakaiXx

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sakaiXx

the third rune factory on the 3ds is so much fun please continue the series please !

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Kitty_Fields

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Kitty_Fields

NooOOoooo. I love the Rune Factory series! Sad to see these guys go. :(

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Berkut4796

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Berkut4796

:(

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steve4123456789

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steve4123456789

Another nail in the coffin.

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gargungulunk

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gargungulunk

Perhaps a big aspect was lack of advertising for RF4...I couldn't even /find/ it at Target, Walmart, or Gamespot on opening week...and it seems like a lot of people don't even know about it enough to check it out.

Once it arrived in the mail, I've spent about 60 hours with it, and the game doesn't end after the story does...you gotta be in it for the farming though, everything else just ties it together.



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Revenant_K

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Revenant_K

<< LINK REMOVED >> They had more then enough money for selling RF4(in Japan alone) so I don't think its the case.

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ahpuck

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ahpuck

I remember playing Lufia back in the day. It's sad to see them go, but I guess time passed them by. Games that used to be great back then are considered slow by today's standards.

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deactivated-5ff9a77a36328

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deactivated-5ff9a77a36328

<< LINK REMOVED >> I don't think they had anything to do with the "good" Lufia games I remember. Taito did those as I recall. I did really enjoy Rune Factory Frontier though and if they'd done more console releases and less portable I would have bought more I'm sure.

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NettoSaito

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NettoSaito

<< LINK REMOVED >><< LINK REMOVED >> Frontier is actually considered to be one of the worst games in the series, so I'm sure you would have loved the other ones lol. Frontier had less content, long loading times, and it had the runey system which ruined the farming for some people. RF4 on the other hand, it used all of the good points from the previous games, and threw it all into one. If you ever get the chance, you really should try to check out the others.

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ahpuck

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ahpuck

<< LINK REMOVED >><< LINK REMOVED >> Thanks for the clarification. It's been so long since I played it.

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advocacy

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advocacy

Although I've never heard about this game before, and even though GameSpot has not even reviewed it, I will buy it to show my support for the game developers, who are definitely going through some terrible times now.

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sortajan

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sortajan

<< LINK REMOVED >> It's Harvest Moon as a combat RPG.

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atticmonad

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atticmonad

<< LINK REMOVED >> The game is sort like Harvest Moon. I enjoyed it very much and its sad to think that sort of game won't make it to next gen.

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DWalker131

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DWalker131

never played the series before, but this looks ALOT like Secret of Mana (Seiken Densetsu 2) anyone know if its similar ? if it is i'll be getting my hands on it ASAP

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abHS4L88

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abHS4L88

<< LINK REMOVED >>

It's a single player game that focuses around farming simulation and dungeon crawling. I've never played Secret of Mana but I believe that was more RPG focused while this one does have a lot of RPG elements, it's a more action driven version of Harvest Moon.

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pszone

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pszone

I think Level 5 Games but series if not Rune 5 long dead.

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Jasurim

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Jasurim

Aww...I loved that series....really disappointed.

I'm still waiting for RF4 to be released in a region that I can use it from, hopefully they still bring out the UK release. I really hate this stupid 3DS region locking.

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dr_jashugan

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dr_jashugan

Very dissapointing news. I liked Lufia. But, maybe this shows the decline of Japanese game developers. Hmmm. 8-\

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drybones41

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drybones41

Sad to hear. I wasn't the biggest fan of rune factory but i had quite a bit of fun with it when i played it. Hopefully everything works out well.

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whitejackel

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whitejackel

man this sucks, why is it always the good guys that go down? like clover and so on? i love the rune factories. i feel for you guys im sorry my suport wasn't enough.

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abHS4L88

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abHS4L88

<< LINK REMOVED >>

The good thing about Clover was that they managed to open up their own studio. Let's hope another publisher picks up these developers.

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most_games_r_ok

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most_games_r_ok

Pretty sad news tbh. Only reason I actually want a 3DS

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TheWatcher000

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TheWatcher000

Fantastic. Good To hear.

They didn't make shootrz, sportz, racrz, or quik timz, or cater to dudebroz, so they were pretty useless anyway.

Maybe if they just would have made copy/paste shooters they could have been worth something.

Sarcasm aside, this is really a shame. The Rune Factory series was quite good, and it's never good to lose a good developer, and for people to lose their jobs. Especially during the Holiday season.


I hope everyone will find new jobs very quickly.

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