In an update to his personal website from July 8, Ikaruga creator Hiroshi Iuchi officially confirmed his departure from M2, where he had been developing his new game Ubusuna. He provided a thorough explanation of the project’s current status and detailed why its development stretched on for so long before ultimately being halted.
This follows M2’s recent announcement regarding Ubusuna’s development being cancelled. Iuchi expressed regret for the disappointment this caused fans, stating he now believes he should have prevented the company from making the announcement at that particular time. He clarifies that his resignation was already planned by the end of 2025, and by the time M2 made the announcement, he had already begun discussions with other companies about continuing Ubusuna, though no decisions had been reached yet. Due to this, he feels there was no immediate need to announce his departure at that specific moment (he suspects that M2 likely wanted to address the matter before upcoming events).
Needless to say, Iuchi has not given up on Ubusuna. Although it will no longer be developed at M2, he states he’s actively working behind the scenes to continue the project without causing any issues for the parties involved. Fortunately, Iuchi personally holds the rights to Ubusuna’s concept and game system since the original proposal for the game was something he created in 2006 and later presented to M2.
On the other hand, all assets created for the game during its development at M2 are owned by the company, so even once development resumes elsewhere, he will not be able to utilize those assets without cost. Iuchi mentions this is likely the third or fourth time Ubusuna has been stalled or cancelled since its conception in 2006, but this is the first instance where development had progressed this far before being stopped.
The director also addressed speculation he had seen online about Ubusuna collapsing due to “design flaws” or “the pressure of creating a worthy successor to Ikaruga.” He refutes these theories, instead explaining that his team at M2 did not have exclusive focus on Ubusuna because members were repeatedly reassigned to assist with other projects. Whenever the team shifted to other tasks, Ubusuna’s development would cease for a year or more, and restarting afterward also consumed additional time.
Another significant factor for the delays, according to Iuchi, was that management had directed the dev team to keep enhancing the game until he was fully satisfied with it. As a result, the team continued striving for higher and higher quality without a clear direction. While he acknowledges the planning side did attempt to streamline development, Iuchi admits he personally interpreted those instructions too strictly, making this partly his own oversight.
Over such a prolonged development period, the team gradually lost momentum, and with unstable staffing, Iuchi says the project entered a negative cycle, as if “a small group of 2 or 3 people with no experience with 3D games suddenly tried to make an AAA title like Call of Duty.”
That said, Iuchi is confident in Ubusuna being a quality game and appears to be taking measures to continue its development. Immediately after deciding to cancel the project at M2, Ubusuna’s external graphics artist, Kususaga Rin, suggested seeking funding from another company so development could continue, and other individuals also offered their assistance if the project moved forward. Discussions with companies who expressed interest are already in progress. Though Iuchi cautions that he does not yet know how things will ultimately unfold, he says the team is actively working toward delivering Ubusuna to everyone who has been supporting the project.