MarvelousAQL Cancels European Release of Rune Factory 4

Japanese developer Neverland Co. announced in late November 2013 that they were filing for bankruptcy, despite great success with Rune Factory 4 in North America.  Rune Factory, a spin off of the Harvest Moon series, combined the best of farming and dungeon crawling in one great title.  

Although unusual at first, I enjoyed Rune Factory 4.  Unfortunately, it seems that this enjoyment will remain in North America and Asia.  Last week, Marvelous AQL Europe announced the cancellation of Rune Factory 4 in their regions.  Although the game is compete, it appears as if the closure of Neverland Co. stopped the necessary modifications that were needed to see a release in Europe.  

This may not be the end of the Rune Series franchise however.  According to Silaconera (http://www.siliconera.com/2014/01/20/rune-factory-4-european-release-cancelled), the producer of this series, Yoshifumi Hashimoto, is still employed with Marvelous AQL, and a future game could still be in the works.  For the meantime, the only way Europeans will be able to play Rune Factory 4 is by purchasing a North American 3DS and a copy of the game.  

The cancellation of games, although generally bad, can still be a positive.  Perhaps the debate over region free games will receive another push from this cancellation.  If Nintendo continues to deny gamers the ability to import games from other countries to play on their national 3DS, perhaps developers will use the Pokemon X and Y model of releasing worldwide on a set day, rather then staggered launches.