Cult Jap-Publishers ESP Bought Up By D3

It has been confirmed this morning that ESP, the impoverished Japanese publishers behind cult classics Radiant Silvergun and Grandia, has been bought out by D3 Publishing. D3 caters for the more mainstream element of the Japanese market, although that might be less obvious to western audiences looking at a softography consisting of: ‘We Love Riho Futaba’, ‘Darling Special Backlash’, ‘Love Smash 5’ and the budget-priced ‘Simple’ series. D3 was also responsible for the sanity-mincing 'Seaman', which invited Dreamcast players to converse with a swearing fish.

ESP itself went for the budget price of 120 million Yen, which works out at just over one million dollars. That relative bargain will give D3 use of various ESP characters and names, with Victorious Boxers and various quirky anime licenses being the most obvious contenders for new D3-published iterations.

As and when D3 make any announcements pertaining to ESP flavoured projects, particularly in any instance of a non-Japanese release, we shall let you know.