Nippon Ichi promises more PS3 support

Nippon Ichi CEO Sohei Niikawa has commented on increasing the Playstation 3 output of his company over the coming year, shifting from the PSP focus of 2009.

Speaking to Japanese gaming magazine Dengeki Playstation, he said that the company's studios hope to make better use of the PS3's technology with new techniques in new titles. The last major NIS release for PS3 was in the form of Disgaea 3 - a fantastic game that was slightly disappointing in the fact that it was graphically a HD version of its predecessors.

Niikawa did note that early 2010 would still see a PSP focus for the company though, with Zettai Hero Kaizou Keikaku, Classic Dungeon, and Prinny 2 all named as major titles for the niche game creator early on in the year - and they're all on PSP.

'Zettai Hero' is a new dungeon crawling RPG from the team behind Disgaea, but this doesn't mean the end for Nippon Ichi's most notable franchise either. Shinkawa says that the team is taking a break from Disgaea so that the series does not become tired and repetitive.

Meanwhile, Prinny 2 will feature an easier mode for those who found the original too punishing and Classic Dungeon is said to have inherited many gameplay elements from the Disgaea series.

While Niikawa wouldn't be drawn on naming titles in production past these three, he did hint that some of the titles the company is working are large scale for Nippon Ichi, who generally work on lower budget games with smaller teams.

We'd expect a couple of exciting announcements from Nippon Ichi this year. Their Western side is already prepping one exciting new RPG - Sakura Wars - for release this year on the Wii and PS2.