Castlevania spiritual successor Bloodstained to be published by 505 Games

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, the spiritual successor to the classic Castlevania series, will be published globally by 505 Games.

The kickstarter backed project, which has raised $5.5m since its 2015 announcement, will be published worldwide on multiple formats including PS4, Xbox One, WiiU and PS Vita, as well as PC, Linux and OSX. The deal does not include publishing on any mobile stores however.

Bloodstained is created by Koji Igarashi, the former producer of Castlevania, and follows the ‘Metroidvania’ style of that game. Igarashi’s ArtPlay Inc was established in 2014 and the game has been earning plaudits at trade shows since, including being the runner up for Best Indie Game with GamesRadar’s E3 awards.

The small production team at ArtPlay are happy to have the help of a publisher for their game. In an announcement video, Igarashi said: "Although we have started this project through Kickstarter, we wanted more people to play now we are in full production. However, we believe this isn’t possible with our power alone. We are so grateful that a publisher with a vast marketing power such as 505 Games will be working with our small production team."

The game is currently due for release in 2018.