Today, Marvelous Entertainment released its financial results for the first half of the fiscal year, spanning April to September 2024, and it’s not looking good. Once known for beloved series like Senran Kagura and Rune Factory, the company now resembles a shriveled husk, fixated on playing it safe with bland and inclusive indie titles.
During this period, Marvelous saw a serious drop in earnings. Net sales came in at ¥12,877 million JPY ($84.19 million USD), down 8% year-on-year. Their operating profit hit just ¥592 million JPY ($3.87 million USD) a brutal 48.6% decrease compared to last year and the net profit barely scraped by at ¥78 million JPY ($0.51 million USD), a staggering 92.9% decline from the same time last year.
The company’s Digital Content sector, which includes video games, saw a 33.3% drop in net profit year-on-year, with sales also down by 22.1%, totaling ¥6,246 million JPY ($40.84 million USD).
The reason for this pretty lousy performance is no shock, Marvelous Entertainment put out basically nothing worth a damn in terms of strong game releases, either in Japan or overseas. Aside from a few indie titles like The Hokkaido Serial Murder Case: The Okhotsk Disappearance – Memories in Ice Remake via their subsidiary G-Mode, there was nothing to hold fans’ interest.
Marvelous has lost its niche audience years ago, especially after shelving mainline Senran Kagura installments. Co-produced with Tamsoft, the series had built a name for itself with “beat-em-up” gameplay, anime-inspired visuals, and a focus on humor, fanservice, and action featuring eye-catching female shinobi (or ninjas, if you prefer).
Starting with Senran Kagura: Shoujo-tachi no Shinei (known in the West as Senran Kagura: Burst) for the Nintendo 3DS, the franchise follows groups of female ninjas from different schools as they train, fight, and bond. It grew to include multiple spin-off games, anime, and manga, known for its over-the-top sexy designs and satirical, self-aware take on fanservice.
The transformations and outfit choices became iconic parts of the gameplay and appeal, making it a one-of-a-kind series for fans.
Marvelous found itself in hot water mid-development on another mainline Senran Kagura title for the PlayStation 4, dubbed 7EVEN, when Sony stepped in and started cracking down hard on Japanese developers making fanservice-heavy games.
Sony demanded changes and censorship in order to meet their so-called “global standards.” These demands threw Senran Kagura 7EVEN straight into limbo, as the changes they required left the game practically unsalvageable. Marvelous caved to Sony’s over-the-top demands, leading the franchise creator, Kenichiro Takaki, to leave Marvelous entirely after 17 years.
He jumped ship for Cygames, leaving Senran Kagura effectively lifeless and relegated to mobile gacha games just to keep the brand name around.
Marvelous took down its golden goose when it brought Senran Kagura to a halt, and then doubled down by butchering Rune Factory thanks to their Western division, XSEED, a company infamous among fans for censoring and overly localizing Japanese games from developers like Compile Heart, Nihon Falcom, and, of course, Marvelous itself.
Rune Factory has always been celebrated for its unique mix of farming simulation, dungeon crawling, RPG mechanics, and a detailed relationship-building system with marriage options all set in a charming fantasy world. The series let players live a full life, balancing everything from crop-growing to monster-slaying to building deep bonds with townsfolk.
Now, though, with Rune Factory 5, Marvelous and XSEED have traded the series’ classic appeal for a broader modern-day political agendas that feel forced and out of place. Marvelous may have stepped away from relying on XSEED for publishing anything other than smaller indie titles, but the impact Rune Factory 5 had on the fanbase remains, leaving a bitter taste and marking a low point for the franchise many fans once adored.
Rune Factory 5 hit the Japanese market in a less-than-stellar state, plagued with performance problems, data corruption, and bizarre glitches like players falling through the ground upon entering new areas on the Nintendo Switch.
Instead of fixing these critical issues, Marvelous, with XSEED pushing for “modern-day inclusivity,” decided to add same-sex romance options for the global release the following year.
This addition came as a shock to many longtime fans, as Rune Factory traditionally focused on normal heterosexual relationships.
The abrupt changes made during the localization process sparked backlash, particularly in Japan, where fans weren’t given an option, they were effectively forced to accept same-sex marriage via a game update.
Despite this, Rune Factory 5 sold remarkably well, reaching over 500,000 units, largely thanks to the loyalty of its dedicated fanbase. But fans who felt misled were vocal, with many feeling that Marvelous had given up on producing high-quality games with fanservice appeal in favor of farming sims with lukewarm reception.
Marvelous’ other recent output hasn’t done much to change opinions, with low-budget releases like Silent Hope showing the company’s decline.
Now, with a new IP called Farmagia on the horizon, Marvelous seems desperate to turn around its fortunes. Whether it’ll find success remains to be seen, but for now, fans are left wondering what happened to the Marvelous they once knew.
As the name suggests, Farmagia is yet another farming simulator, this time mixed with monster-catching mechanics. Released on November 1st, it received a lukewarm reception, some journalists gave it solid to average scores, calling it a blend of Fairy Tail and Harvest Moon, but Steam reviews have been far less forgiving.
Currently, it sits at just 30% positive from 20 reviews.
This release doesn’t bode well for Marvelous, and Farmagia might not be enough to keep them afloat. The upcoming flagship, Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma, is likely to be the real test.
If Marvelous can’t win back its core audience, especially after the disappointment surrounding Rune Factory 5, plagued with censorship and a focus on LGBT inclusivity over bug fixes, this could be the start of a hard financial downturn for the company as not even its flagship franchises would be selling.
The latest installment in Marvelous’s flagship series, Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma, is slated for a Spring 2025 release on PC (Steam) and Nintendo Switch. However, Marvelous isn’t certain if the launch will fall within the current fiscal year, which ends on March 31, 2025.
Honestly, I don’t expect Guardians of Azuma to make much of a splash. It’s becoming painfully clear that Marvelous has stepped away from what made its games popular, fanservice and a niche dedicated following, under pressure from its American branch, XSEED, Marvelous have instead pushed for a “cleaner” more globally acceptable corporate image fixated on DEI and ESG initiatives.
Marvelous once captivated a dedicated audience with its bold IPs, but that magic has long since faded. Instead, they’re choosing to align with Western social standards around “sexualization,” pulling away from elements that fans loved.
With this shift, Marvelous may very well be operating on borrowed time. As they sideline their own style for what they think will appeal to broader audiences, the company will likely continue to suffer.
