Arc System Works Opens New Tokyo Studio Takumi to Build a New Fighting Game
Arc System Works will open a new Tokyo studio, Takumi, on November 2 to build a still-unannounced fighting game backed by a Japanese government subsidy program.
Arc System Works, the Osaka studio behind Guilty Gear and BlazBlue, has confirmed it is opening a new development studio in Tokyo on November 2. Named Arc System Works Tokyo Studio "Takumi," the new base in Shinjuku will take the lead on a still-unannounced fighting game and is meant to give the entire company more room to grow beyond its current roster of anime-style brawlers.
What Arc System Works Announced
The company laid out the plan in a studio announcement published on its official site on October 15, confirming the new office's address at Urban Center Shinjuku and its opening date of November 2, 2026. Arc System Works described the space as a "strategic cornerstone" for work that goes beyond its existing development framework, with an explicit goal of delivering what it calls "ultimate excitement" to players worldwide. The company also frames Takumi as an outward-facing collaboration hub rather than just another production floor, a detail aimed at partners and co-development studios as much as players.
A Subsidized Fighting Game Nobody Has Seen
Takumi's first confirmed job is developing a new fighting game that was selected for Japan's "IP360" program, a content-industry subsidy run by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry as part of a government push to triple overseas sales of Japanese entertainment IP by 2033. Arc System Works has not named the project, shown any art, or confirmed a platform. The studio's announcement ties it only to the signature ArcSys cel-shaded anime style that has defined the developer's fighting games for two decades, without specifying whether it uses an existing property or introduces a new one.
That house style is easiest to see in Guilty Gear -Strive-, still Arc System Works' highest-profile release and the game most associated with its painterly, 2D-look 3D rendering technique. The studio has spent the past several years applying variations of that same pipeline across BlazBlue, Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising, and this year's Under Night In-Birth II: Sys:Celes, and Takumi appears designed to let a dedicated team build another entry in that family without pulling staff off those live titles.
Why Shinjuku, Why Now
The timing lines up with a broader expansion push rather than a single game's needs. Arc System Works has spent 2026 branching outward, co-developing Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls content and exploring projects outside fighting games entirely, and a dedicated Tokyo studio gives the Osaka-headquartered company a second hub closer to Japan's larger pool of Tokyo-based developers and publishing partners. Opening a studio around a government-subsidized project also lets Arc System Works offset some of the cost of standing up a new team, which matters for a company whose output is still concentrated in a genre with a famously devoted, famously small audience.
Hiring From the Ground Up
Because Takumi is a new studio rather than a transferred team, Arc System Works is recruiting founding staff across development roles through its own careers page, rather than simply reassigning existing employees. The company's announcement frames the hiring push as building "a new world together," language it has used before when opening new internal teams, and it has not given a target headcount or a timeline for when the studio reaches full strength relative to its November 2 opening date.
The company reinforced the announcement on social media the same day, posting a short notice directing followers to the full release and thanking the community for its continued support, a routine step for Arc System Works but one that confirms the studio opening is a company-wide priority rather than a quiet back-office filing.
What It Means for Guilty Gear and Beyond
Nothing here changes current support plans for Guilty Gear -Strive-, Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising, or Under Night In-Birth II, all of which remain under their existing teams. What Takumi does signal is that Arc System Works sees room for a second flagship fighting-game lineage alongside Guilty Gear rather than a replacement for it, built by a team recruited specifically for a new, unnamed IP. Until the studio opens and staffing is further along, the project itself remains a line in a subsidy filing and a paragraph in a corporate announcement, with no screenshots, no platforms, and no release window attached. The clearest sign of how serious the investment is will be how quickly Arc System Works can staff Takumi and get its first game in front of players.
【お知らせ】 アークシステムワークス株式会社は、東京都新宿に 新たな開発スタジオ「ARC SYSTEM WORKS TOKYO STUDIO "TAKUMI"」を開設することを決定いたしました。 今後とも皆様からの変わらぬご支援・ご応援を賢りますよう、お願い申し上げます。 https://t.co/uvqyjb3mRD
— Arc System Works (@ARCSY_PR) on X
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Theo covers the business of games for Gamers6: studio moves, platform strategy and the press releases nobody else finishes reading. He files most days before the coffee is cold.
