Game Designer Explains Why Kemuri Will Not Support Xbox

The creators of Kemuri could make a port, but they value their lives.

Players recently recalled Kemuri after developers announced the project at The Game Awards several years ago.

Studio UNSEEN is handling development, and this year the team participated in the PlayStation State of Play presentation, showing gameplay footage. It also revealed the target platforms: PlayStation 5 and PC, while Xbox Series X|S was left off the list.

Some players wondered why the developers decided against releasing Kemuri on Xbox. They finally received a specific answer from Ikumi Nakamura as internet users drew attention to a Q&A session:

During the conversation, when asked if there is a chance for an Xbox release in the future, Ikumi Nakamura answered “no” and then began explaining her stance. She noted that studio UNSEEN is small and porting Kemuri to other platforms requires many resources. Ikumi does not want to put employee lives at risk just to release another port:

I just want people to understand: porting is a huge amount of work. First we develop the game for PC, and then to port it to Nintendo or PlayStation, we need engineers to handle the port. At a large company, there are usually dedicated employees for this. But we are a very small studio, and if we had to do ports ourselves, our engineers would be completely exhausted. I prefer to put people’s lives first. I don’t want anyone to die for the sake of releasing an Xbox version. People first, above all else. That’s it.

The creators position Kemuri as a “yokai-obsessed action game” where players can form contracts with yokai and use their power in combat. Events will unfold in Kemuri, “the city closest to the afterlife.” Players will explore this location in the role of yokai hunters.

Kemuri is scheduled for release in 2027. A more precise release date for the project has not been specified yet.

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