Japanese game designers and other figures seem to be leaving their old haunts left and right, and today comes a big blow dealt to the company that was already hit hard in recent months. Kazuma Kujo was a creative talent at Irem for many years, but he has recently left the company to open his own, . It's a small operation now, but naturally, , seeking programmers, designers and planners for game projects.

Besides games, Kujo was also the mind behind Irem's and the other lighthearted stuff the company put up on their web site. It stands to reason that Kujo will be bringing some of that into Granzella... if the isn't enough of an indicator.

The news inevitably paints an increasingly bleak picture for Irem, which decided to cancel their latest entry in the Zettai Zetsumei Toshi (Disaster Report) series shortly after the Tohoku earthquake, along with the cancellation of the long-in-development sequel to Bumpy Trot, both of which Kujo was responsible for, and their fates preceded his leaving and forming of Granzella. But while Irem may me down, they're not out -- they have two PSP games in the queue, and hopefully they strive for more of the cool ideas they had under Kujo's guidance.

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