Nintendo Will Publish Yo-kai Watch in the West

After a successful few years in Japan, Nintendo and Level 5 have decided to localize Yo-kai Watch in 2016. The announcement was made during the Level 5 Vision 2015 event today, as reported by Siliconera. The 3DS game will come first to North America and then be rolled out in other territories worldwide on a month by month basis, completing the global launch process by the end of that year. Yo-kai Watch has sold 7 million copies since its release in July of 2013 in Japan. No specific release date or window within 2016 has been given at this time. Whether and when the sequels will follow the international release of the first game has not yet been addressed

Level-5 hopes to follow the Japanese success of Yo-kai Watch with an equally successful venture in other territories. Nintendo will be publishing the game while Hasbro will be handling the marketing of related toys in the other territories during the spring of 2016. During the conference, Level 5 also shared some clips from the English dubbed version of the Yo-kai Watch anime as well as some talks with employees of Hasbro who expressed their excitement to be a part of the localization process for the franchise.

There was plenty of other news for the series announced during the conference as well. A second season of the anime is currently being made as well as a new film to release in Japan in December of this year. Yo-kai Watch 3 for the 3DS is also being developed- it will take place in the United States and tie in with the coming second season of the anime. Several new Yo-kai related games for smartphones are also currently being developed. Level 5 will also be cooperating with Koei Tecmo to create a Yo-kai Watch x Romance of the Three Kingdoms game with more details to be released soon.