Eidos gets Fresh
How to make friends and influence gamers
Eidos Interactive has announced the establishment of Fresh Games, a company to take responsibility for "unlikely and unusual" localization projects from Japan. The Fresh line-up will begin with Mr. Mosquito, Mad Maestro and Legaia 2 : Duel Saga (the sequel to Sony's RPG Legend of Legaia), all of which are due for American release in Spring 2002. We tried to get hold of an Eidos representative this morning, but none was available to comment on the European situation. "Fresh Games is considered a boutique label, created solely to expose gamers to unique and captivating gameplay experiences that traditionally have been unavailable outside of Japan," says Eidos CEO Mike McGarvey. We're sceptical - we did just report on the eventual arrival of a Japanese RPG in Europe… after eight years - but Fresh Games seems to want to "change people's perceptions of what constitutes a great game." This move will improve Eidos' PlayStation 2 catalogue, and may even result in some decent, non-standard PS2 releases for us to enjoy. Whether the games will be full retail or reduced has yet to be commented upon, but our instinct is full retail.