Arc System Works Opens Tokyo ‘TAKUMI’ Studio to Develop a New Fighting Game

Arc System Works is opening a new Tokyo development studio called ARC SYSTEM WORKS TOKYO STUDIO “TAKUMI” in Shinjuku on November 2, the company announced today. The studio’s first project will be a brand-new fighting game selected for Japan’s METI “IP360” subsidy program, with a broader mission of serving as what the announcement describes as an “outward-facing collaboration hub” aimed at global audiences.

TAKUMI will be located in Urban Center Shinjuku at 2-5-10 Shinjuku, Shinjuku-ku. The studio’s first project, per the official post, is a “new competitive fighting game” picked for IP360, a content-industry growth subsidy program run by Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. Beyond the new fighting game, Arc System Works says the new studio exists to “dramatically strengthen development capabilities across Arc System Works” and to function as a collaboration hub rather than a single-project outpost. The studio is also significantly expanding recruitment of creators as founding members.

The TAKUMI opening follows today’s separate 4Gamer report that Japan’s METI IP360 program is joining forces with Marvelous’ iGi indie-game incubator on a joint booth at the SAGA Barcelona Game Fest 2026, where two Japanese indie titles will debut in Europe for the first time. Arc System Works has not named a platform, release window, or even a working title for the new fighting game; today’s announcement only confirms that TAKUMI exists and that IP360 status as a funded title is its launch project. Arc System Works’ most recent fighting game release, BlazBlue: Central Fiction on PS5 with rollback netcode, shows the studio still treats English support as standard for its flagship fighters, but a new IP under TAKUMI would be unproven territory.

Can you play it in English?

Not yet. Arc System Works has not announced a game title, platform, release window, or languages for the brand-new fighting game that TAKUMI is building. Arc System Works’ own post frames the new studio as “global”-facing, and the IP360 subsidy is designed to push Japanese content outward, but those are not the same as a confirmed English-language release. Arc System Works has a track record of localizing its major titles into English (Guilty Gear Strive, the BlazBlue series, DNF Duel, and others have all shipped with English text and voice), so a Western version is plausible once a game is announced. The studio is hiring founding members now via the Arc System Works recruitment page, and any concrete news on a project name or English support is likely to follow once staffing settles. Until then, Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls and the release calendar remain the most concrete clues for what 2026 and 2027 have in store for English-speaking fighting-game fans.

Edited by Kerwin Stewart, Editor-in-Chief · How we report