Shirotsuku was to feature characters based on historical Japanese heroes.

Cave, a Japanese developer known mostly for their shoot-em up games, has cancelled two of their PlayStation Vita games in development. The company had been facing financial issues and poor sales forecasts and was forced to cancel Shirotsuku (a social war game) and an unannounced shoot-em up; both were in development for Sony’s brand new handheld.

In the cancelled Shirotsuku, players are cast as a “daimyo” in the Sengoku period of Japanese history who needs build up his own tiny castle kingdom in this Sengoku simulation game. Players could use the “check in” feature to pick up souvenirs exclusive to your geo-location and construct unique buildings from that area. Once the player’s castle town is bustling, they can enter a skirmish to try their luck in battle against other users.

Shirotsuku was supposed to be the first game to use the PlayStation Vita’s location registration feature to pick up souvenirs and buildings exclusive to the player’s geographic area.

These cancellations present irrefutable evidence that many of Japan’s developers are indeed facing grave financial situations. These companies are also facing the threat of rising interest in western games in both the Western and Eastern game markets. Cave’s latest releases have mostly suffered from poor sales like the recent Akai Katana (released in Europe) for the Xbox 360.

Discuss:

Given the budgets needed to develop games for high-profile handhelds like Vita, do you think smaller Japanese developers can still viably make games for the console?

[Via Develop]