Oh, Phantom Breaker, it looks like the story continues, somehow. Previously, the series released its latest entry, Phantom Breaker Omnia, on consoles and PC back in the middle of March, developed by MAGES and published by Rocket Panda Games, a game we reviewed when it was originally released.

　　Anyways, onto Phantom Breaker’s new developments. So, the latter of the two, Rocket Panda Games, has gone and purchased the entire IP from MAGES as of this morning. Rocket Panda says that they plan to “further explore new directions for the intellectual property and is committed to maximizing the series’ potential for fans around the world.”

　　Purchasing the IP gives them legal ownership of Phantom Breaker and its various arcade and console versions, obviously, as well as its beat-’em-up spinoff Phantom Breaker: Battle Grounds. M. Panda, from Rocket Panda Games, commented on the purchase, saying,

　　Today marks the beginning of a new chapter in the Phantom Breaker franchise, and we couldn’t be more thrilled. We go way back with [producer Masaki Sakari] and have a great relationship with MAGES., and we’re super happy to carry on the torch for the series. The team’s got some great stuff in store that we can’t wait to share with everyone in due time.

　　Maybe one of those things is rollback in Omnia, amongst other fixes. A brief bit of context: in a Q&A session back in February on their website, Rocket Panda broke the news that rollback netcode won’t be in Omnia.

　　The reason they provided is that not only did they actually want to, but in this case, given that Phantom Breaker Extra (the previous version) was used as the medium for this version, it would involve essentially scrapping everything and starting from scratch, and with resources being tight, it came to “release PBO without rollback” or “don’t release PBO at all”.

　　Hopefully, between Omnia’s launch and the acquisition, Rocket Panda and MAGES are doing a little better resource-wise, and this acquisition can be the first step in changing the netcode. Phantom Breaker Omnia is out on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC via Steam.