Atlus taking over Dragon's Crown publishing duties

Atlus and UTV Ignition Games have announced that Atlus has taken over the publishing rights and IP for Vanillaware's Dragon's Crown for PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita. The hand-drawn 2D brawler was announced at E3 2011 and was set for a release this year, but Atlus will be pushing the title back to 2013 in North America. The Japanese release date is still listed as TBA. In addition, the publisher will be assisting in the development of the title, with members of the Persona team acting as producers.

"When we took over the reins, we realized that a lot of the information made available to the public was ambitious and unfounded conjecture. The release timing, the pricing, and many of the features detailed for fans and members of the press were simply unknowable at the time they were disseminated (and frankly we were quite shocked to find out that many of the details were made public unbeknownst to even the developers)," wrote Atlus Manager of Public Relations Aram Jabbari in a post on the US PlayStation blog.

Jabbari also revealed that the title will be getting a price hike from the expected $29.99 MSRP.

"It's still way too early in development to be talking about specifics, but we can say that the game simply cannot retail for $29.99. We don't know where that price point came from, but it is a logistical impossibility. We're all gamers and we all wished it could be so, but it would have essentially destroyed any chance for profitability," he wrote.

The press release from Atlus Japan (translated via Andriasang) mentions the takeover of the IP, which was a spiritual successor for Atlus' Princess Crown, a Sega Saturn title released in 1997. Members of the Princess Crown development team, including Art Director George Kamitani, later formed Vanillaware.