It’s always a sad time to see a Dev Studio in trouble, especially when you have memories in the series that is effected. It always seemed Rune Factory was never well received in Australia, or not at all in most cases. Playing Punch-Out!! and Rune Factory: Frontier was a good set of memories for me. If you aren’t familiar, Rune Factory was more or less sold as a Fantasy Harvest Moon spin off. Personally, I felt like the combat and other mechanics the series added were a lot of fun and it did enough to differentiate itself.
Despite all of that, Neverland Co. Creators of Rune Factory has filed for bankruptcy and are ceasing operations, as announced on their site. Translated by Siliconera, the post states that thanks to sluggish performance the company’s financial success has deteriorated. Neverland Co. has tried to raise funds, but all attempts have been unsuccessful.
Rune Factory 4 producer Yoshifumi Hashimoto has made a statement via the games blog, ” I’d like to take this occasion to make a comment about the future, as of now, it’ll still remain a secret as to what kind of title we’ll be releasing next, but I can say that the staff members are still doing great.
I will leave it at that for now, and I thank you for your continued support.”
While it’s not certain if we will ever see Rune Factory 4 in Australia, we wish all the best for everybody at Neverland Co.
