Level-5 may have given up locating games to the West. The developers focus on Japan

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This is not an officially confirmed news yet, but it is provided by the respected Gamesindustry editorial team. According to “multiple sources,” Level-5 began laying off most of its staff from two US offices last year. Over the past few months, about 20 employees (ten from Level-5 International America and ten from Level-5 Abby) have had to leave the Japanese studio.

The Japanese reportedly already focused on working with the advertising and marketing company Dentsu, with one or two employees taking care of “basic functions” during the change process. Yukari Hayakawa (CEO of Abby’s Level-5) was due to leave the company at the beginning of the year.

Level-5 International America reported the closure of the design department in July 2019, but reportedly this was not the time of large-scale restructuring. As it turns out, almost the entire team was dismissed after the next few months.

The situation is problematic for one reason: we cannot currently count on localization of any game from Level-5. According to Gamesindustry, the studio focused on the Japanese market.

It is worth recalling two titles here: The location of the Yo-Kai Watch 4 was announced in 2019 and although the item has been available for a year in Japan, we have not received any positive signals of a westward release since then. Just like Inazuma Eleven: Great Road of Heroes – the game is expected to hit the market in 2021, but Level-5 no longer mentions an edition for Europeans and Americans.

The company also does not publish news on its English-speaking social media accounts – some sites have not been active since October 2018.

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Source: https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2020-10-09-level-5-has-virtually-halted-operations-in-north-america