Many of us will remember Victor Ireland as the ultimate fanboy. He even formed a company, Working Designs, to bring his favorite Japanese games to American shores. Although they closed last year, Working Designs will always be remembered for bringing the Lunar series to American RPG fans.

Now, Victor is back with a new company, Gaijinworks. The fledgling company sounds like it will work much in the same way as the former Working Designs. Gaijinworks will work to bring some of their favorite Japanese games to other countries, no matter how small the potential audience.

When asked about the name, Victor added the following:

It really isn’t that complicated. It’s all about turning a negative into a positive and communicating what we do succinctly. “Gaijin” is literally “outsider”, and it’s commonly held as a derogatory Japanese tag. The “Works” is implying a foundry or such like place where craftsmen work something fluid into something strong and solid. The logo is a Japanese (modern) flag with a gear around the middle. Gaijinworks. Literally, a place where damned outsiders craft Japanese games into stuff for you to care about in English.
However, one major difference did present itself in the initial announcement.

Also, while Working Designs brought its games solely to the PS/PS2 audience, it seems that Gaijinworks won’t be focusing on one system.

I can’t say much at the moment except that Gaijinworks will not be console-monogamous. I don’t hate Nintendo, and the economics of the DS are improving almost daily as the console takes off and manufacturing turn time improves. Point of fact, you could see Gaijinworks on consoles anywhere…or everywhere.

It looks like Victor is taking a very strong look at the DS and its growing library of games. Working Designs faced all sorts of monetary problems during its existence, perhaps Gaijinworks will fair better with a more platform-agnostic strategy. We wish them all the luck in the world and look forward to seeing some new work from Victor.

source: Games are Fun