Gaming blogs are passing around the story this afternoon that Japanese video game developer Game Republic has apparently shut down its offices in Tokyo, as well as its website. Cited reasons include the rumor that founder Yoshiki Okamoto has racked up significant debt and is nowhere to be found.

While most of the attention in fandom is usually given to developers such as Dimps and particularly Spike that handle the main console games year in and year out, Game Republic has actually stepped up to the plate and released a trilogy of Nintendo DS games that range from interesting in theory but forgettable (Dragon Ball DS / Origins) to impressive follow-ups (Dragon Ball DS 2 / Origins 2) to flat-out fantastic surprises (Dragon Ball Kai: Ultimate Butōden). It would certainly be a shame if this ends up being it for Game Republic.