Deathsmiles 2X going straight to Games on Demand next Tuesday [update]

by JC Fletcher on May 13th 2011 10:19AM

The Xbox 360 "Games on Demand" digital retail service has, until now, only featured games that were already available on disc in a given region. Cave is bucking the trend by sending the shmup sequel Deathsmiles 2X directly to Games on Demand in North America, skipping a disc release in the region.

Cave is also skipping localization for the $30 game -- it'll be released in Japanese, which, for a shmup, shouldn't be a problem. Deathsmiles 2X will launch via Games on Demand next Tuesday, May 17. In the Facebook post announcing the unique release, Cave said it "will be giving this format a try for getting some of our Japan-only shooters released overseas." It's kind of an ideal solution for the company -- it gets to self-publish its shooters in North America, without the expense of localization, manufacturing or distribution.

~~Oddly, Cave told Siliconera that you'd have to use a credit card to buy the game; it can't be purchased with Microsoft Points.~~ (Note: When purchasing Games on Demand titles, the payment option defaults to credit card, though normally users have the option to switch it to Microsoft Points.)

After the break, you can watch some footage of the game that's also unlocalized (because we grabbed it from the Japanese website).

Update: Microsoft told Joystiq that you will be able to use Microsoft Points to purchase Deathsmiles 2X. Retrieve the pieces of that points card from the shredder!

Via: Siliconera
Source: Facebook

Tags: cave, death-smiles-2x, deathsmiles-2x, games-on-demand, microsoft, q2-2011, release-date, xblm, xbox

Reader Comments (30)

way bummed about this. deathsmiles has a lot of storyline for a standard shmup. i have the japanese version already and would have loved to see what was going on in the cutscenes/endings.

will still pick it up to support cave bringing it over though. :\

@ghostwolves All you're doing is supporting the bad business practices! You pay them money for a lazy ISO dump then they'll continue to release lazy ISO dumps! Vote with your wallet man!

@Ujn Hunter
When the alternative is not getting the game PERIOD, I'll sure as hell support them.

My katakana is a pretty amateur but I think the end of the subtitle says Merry Christmas???

@Drew327

You are right. The Kanji in front is Makai

So it is Makai no Merry Christmas

I loved the first one, though definitely could not begin to care less about the story. My only concern with the non-translation is whether or not the menus will be hard to navigate. I took a year of Japanese in high school, but there's no way I can keep up with anything at this point!

Um, yeah - after watching that video? The damned game could be in ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, and I'd stumble through to play it. That looks so, so bad ass!

I'll give them props for the daring experiment-- it's one hell of a belated birthday present (Monday, and no, I'm not telling how old I am beyond "GODDAMN OLD"). More than that, debuting it at the $30 price point is a smart move given the niche genre (over here). Unfortunately I can't share in the love until the end of the month, but it's tops on my list.

That said, if this does well, how about a GoD release of Mushihimesama Futari? That one still goes for $70+ on disc.

"That said, if this does well, how about a GoD release of Mushihimesama Futari?"

This.

That game looks incredible, but I've balked at importing it because of the price of entry.

@Jerk Face You can get it for $35 now thanks to the platinum release.

http://www.play-asia.com/Mushihimesama_Futari_Ver_1.5_Platinum_Collection/paOS-13-71-br-49-en-70-3yu5.html

@DietSoap

Yea light what DietSoap said I purchase it from Play-Asia last month for 39 dollars all together. Been playing it ever since and loving every minute of it. Purple orbs of doom filling my screen never felt so good before.

@DietSoap

Whaaaaaaat.

*click click click*

I will be picking this up as soon as possible to support Cave. Hopefully they will consider releasing some of their other games on GOD. I would absolutely love for Dodonpachi Daifukkatsu and Akai Katana to be on GOD as well.

Communicate with Cae through their twitter account and let your voices be heard.

I dunno it seems to me like the best way to have done this would not to have region locked the game in the first place.

Then going pure digital and not to localize anything .... not even menus from the sound of it? Come on, at least menus..... its not rocket surgery.

Don't get me wrong I'm glad they are "officially" releasing it for western markets but at the same time it just seems like this is setting companies up with a new set of bad habits.

I'll keep my fingers crossed that it somehow acts as a gateway for more localized releases and not just delayed untranslated games that if not for region locking could have been easily imported.

I am disappointed that the text will not be localized into English. There are very few games these days that I will spend money on even if they aren't localized.

I guess I have so many choices in this current era of gaming that I'm not chomping at the bit for, and importing games like I used to during the days of SNES and PS1 games not coming over.

YESS!!!! As soon as PSN is back up I am so buying this.

@Trilancer It's only for 360.

@Trilancer

Yea Cave has been placing a steady regiment of their games on the 360. Many people can say many things about consoles and this generation but one thing that will remain true is that the 360 is the Shmup king this gen.

i supported the U.S. release of the first Deathsmiles by buying the collector's edition a short while after it came out. i was happy to pay $40 for it- but even though i'm a huge fan of shooters, i don't think i can swallow $30 for an non-localized download-only title.

I have the original, not sure if I'll be bothering without English. The game would have been 30 to 40 if released retail here anyway... paying 30 for an untouched Japanese game isn't exactly winning me over.

So I'm supposed to pay $30 for a game that is unlocalized? Bummer. I love shmups and having Deathsmiles on the big screen would be awesome but that's a hard price to swallow, if you ask me.

Especially when you can get Trouble Witches for $10 and it's in English. But I will be interested to see what type of reception this release gets as it will be somewhat of a litmus test for import games.

@Morning Toast

For a certain very, VERY lenient definition of "English".

@Morning Toast
However, Trouble Witches is mediocre whereas Deathsmiles is wonderful. For a shmup, which requires about as much knowledge of Japanese as a fighting game (if not less), I'd hope that'd even out the so-called language barrier.

A lot of people are really blowing the "language barrier" out of proportion. You're not missing the story because even CAVE doesn't care about the story. It makes no sense in the first place. Essentially the only thing you'll have to do is look up the translated achievement list online. Even the menus feature a great deal of English.

I've not played DeathsmilesX2, so I don't know how it compares to the first, but it'd be a shame to miss out on it because of such reasons. I've imported other CAVE titles and the language is a complete non-issue.

Yay! Lazy Japanese ISO dumps on XBL for $30! Boo! Wish this game wasn't region locked... I'd import that disc so hard.

I'm ok with it.
Don't care bout the story and enjoyed the first one.

They would do better by making it an XBLA title for $10-$15. Especially since you can already find similar games there for the same price. Games on Demand for $30 is a death sentence.

@HaVoK308

The shooters on XBLA are either older or don't have as much content as Cave's releases. Games like Ikaruga and Triggerheart are older, while the other shooters like KoF: Sky Stage and Trouble Witches Neo don't have that much content in comparison. However, I can't recommend Trouble Wicthes Neo enough if you like Deathsmiles. It's an absolute steal at $10.

No disc release = no sale.

Yay for it not being localized! This games are always better in Japanese. Anyways, this game is being bought the second it goes live on Tuesday. I'd prefer a disc release, but I know that that's not the smartest thing considering how niche the shmup market is in the US.

@(Unverified)

There won't be. You people don't understand a few things.

1. The US market isn't big enough for shooters, which is why Aksys didn't pick this one up for over here. Raiden IV, RFA, DeathSmiles, and soon Otomedius Excellent, will have all failed to sell what they should've.

2. Localizations cost money. Even if it's download, if the market is small, it's pretty asinine to pay someone to localize the game. As it is, most of us shooter fans prefer the native language that they were made to play in, as the English stuff is usually pretty awful.

3. If it weren't this way, you wouldn't get it any way. Without publisher interest, there's no way to see shooters release in the states in this day & age. There's a reason as to why we've only had 3 retail shooters on the Xbox 360 in the US.

If you people whine and complain, not supporting Cave''s endeavors, then you'll never get to play any of their games, unless you want to import the console and games.

Death Smiles 2X

Deathsmiles 2X going straight to Games on Demand next Tuesday [update]

Reader Comments (30)

Posted: May 13th 2011 10:24AM ghostwolves said

Posted: May 13th 2011 3:29PM Ujn Hunter said

Posted: May 13th 2011 4:59PM RickGhastly said

Posted: May 13th 2011 10:33AM Drew327 said

Posted: May 13th 2011 11:06AM kaioshade said

Posted: May 13th 2011 10:39AM Jerk Face said

Posted: May 13th 2011 10:43AM Jerk Face said

Posted: May 13th 2011 10:41AM John Z said

Posted: May 13th 2011 10:44AM Jerk Face said

Posted: May 13th 2011 12:29PM DietSoap said

Posted: May 13th 2011 1:01PM Stevetrop Man of Mystery said

Posted: May 13th 2011 2:21PM Jerk Face said

Posted: May 13th 2011 11:07AM kaioshade said

Posted: May 13th 2011 11:39AM Scuffles said

Posted: May 13th 2011 11:40AM superfrick said

Posted: May 13th 2011 11:52AM Trilancer said

Posted: May 13th 2011 12:00PM Softserve said

Posted: May 13th 2011 1:03PM Stevetrop Man of Mystery said

Posted: May 13th 2011 11:56AM laser beams said

Posted: May 13th 2011 11:59AM Softserve said

Posted: May 13th 2011 12:01PM Morning Toast said

Posted: May 13th 2011 1:31PM John Z said

Posted: May 13th 2011 3:32PM RickGhastly said

Posted: May 13th 2011 3:23PM Ujn Hunter said

Posted: May 13th 2011 3:51PM Al Ferreira said

Posted: May 13th 2011 5:38PM HaVoK308 said

Posted: May 14th 2011 4:49PM KungFuChaosNinja said

Posted: May 13th 2011 5:52PM Nogib said

Posted: May 14th 2011 4:47PM KungFuChaosNinja said

Posted: May 14th 2011 4:55PM KungFuChaosNinja said

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