Digital Bros, the parent company of 505 Games, has stopped development of Armed Fantasia, the spiritual successor to Media.Vision’s Wild Arms series. The decision was announced in the annual financial report for the year ended June 30, 2026.
According to the document, development was halted after multiple attempts to redesign the gameplay and “a thorough analysis of each product,” including an assessment of current progress, potential markets and the amount of additional investment required. Digital Bros reported an impairment loss of €18.7 million; this figure includes a €17.6 million write-down related to closed projects and a direct impairment charge of €1 million.
Armed Fantasia: Wild’s End is a Western punk RPG set in the world of London. The project is created by Wild Bunch Productions, which features former Wild Arms developers, including long-time series producer Akifumi Kaneko. Players will become part of a team of “Pathfinders” and explore the world, using gadgets unique to each character and participating in turn-based combat.
The game was announced in 2022 as part of a joint Kickstarter campaign with Penny Blood, the spiritual successor to the Shadow Hearts series. Penny Blood is produced by Yukikaze, Shade and Studio Wildrose under the direction of original series creator Matsuzou Machida. The campaign raised a total of 379,328,385 yen ($2.4 million) from approximately 18,000 backers. If Penny Blood doesn’t have a publisher by 2025 (Kickstarter funds ran out in the fall of 2023, after Machida and artist Miyako Kato funded the project with their own savings), 505 Games subsequently announced that it would become the publisher of Armed Fantasia.
Armed Fantasy was originally slated to release on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, and PC in March 2025, but the release was subsequently delayed indefinitely (even before Digital Bros decided to cancel the project). While the developers do post news on the game’s official website to keep fans updated, they rarely do so (as Kaneko admitted in his most recent update in March 2026). Additionally, a March announcement confirmed that so-called “vertical slices” (portions of a project that include the main story, key game mechanics, and various integrated elements) have been submitted to the publisher for approval. Kaneko also noted that the timing of the news release and the amount of information the studio can reveal will largely depend on the publisher.
Digital Bros has stopped supporting Armed Fantasia, but Wild Bunch Productions has yet to state whether the project will be completely finished or if the developer will try to find other sources of funding.
