Shueisha announced on March 31, 2022, it established back on February 16 a new game studio named Shueisha Games, which is supporting other developers' studios on over five ongoing projects, and is most notably developing a mobile game with character design by a Shonen Jump artist.

Shueisha is one of the biggest publishers in Japan, most notably owning the Shonen Jump line of publications and magazines which saw the birth of classics that revolutionized the manga industry and culture as a whole. Series like Dragon Ball, Slam Dunk, Saint Seiya, Hokuto no Ken, City Hunter, Captain Tsubasa, Hikaru no Go, Yugioh, One Piece, Demon Slayer and Chainsaw Man were all first published by Shueisha.

Shueisha Games is working on a smartphone game with character designs from a certain Shonen Jump mangaka. Silhouettes of the characters were revealed. Check them out below. You can distinguish the character's hairstyles, but it's not enough to pinpoint who drew them. We can still make some guesses though, and I'd personally bet on Yuki Tabata of Black Clover fame.

Some of the fans will definitely be disappointed to hear this is a mobile game. However, mobile games have come a long way, and some of the recently released titles like Heaven Burns Red actually have even better engaging characters and presentation than some console JRPGs. Either way, the mobile market is much bigger than consoles for years now. We can only hope more and more titles will stop heavily relying on gacha systems to propose deeper gameplay and stories instead.

Shueisha Games is also helping out other studios

Shueisha Games also announced to be assisting other studios on over five different projects on its official site, all with their specific pages in English. Be sure to check it out for the full details. Moreover, there is one project in particular that could pique your interest, Oni, a 3D action game with a cute kids anime feel to it, coming out in 2022.

Right now, most shonen game adaptations are handled by studios like Spike Chunsoft or CyberConnect2, perhaps in the future we'll see new Chainsaw Man or Jujutsu Kaisen titles by Shueisha Games, hopefully not only on mobile but on consoles as well.

Manga, anime and games are intrinsically linked

While Shueisha didn't have its "own" studio until now, the company always played a huge role in the making of anime games as one of Bandai Namco's biggest partners. Other manga publishers have also been involved in the games industry historically. The JRPG Live A Live, which is getting a Nintendo Switch HD-2D remake this year, initially started as a joint project between Square and Shueisha's rival Shogakukan. All the characters in Live A Live were designed by Shogakukan mangaka, most notably Detective Conan's Gosho Aoyama.

Game companies like Square Enix also have their own manga publishing arm (GanGan), and Square Enix is most notably the publisher of Fullmetal Alchemist.