Prope Ltd. is a now defunct Japanese

video game development studio A video game developer is a broad term for a software developer specializing in video game development – the process and related disciplines of creating video games. A game developer can range from one person who undertakes all tasks to a large ...

founded by

Yuji Naka , credited in some games as YU2, is a Japanese video game programmer, video game designer, designer and video game producer, producer. He is the former head of the Sega studio Sonic Team, where he was the lead programmer of the original ''Sonic t ...

, a former Japanese

video game programmer A game programmer is a software engineer, programmer, or computer scientist who primarily develops codebases for video games or related software, such as game development tools. Game programming has many specialized disciplines, all of which fall ...

designer A designer is a person who plans the form or structure of something before it is made, by preparing drawings or plans. In practice, anyone who creates tangible or intangible objects, products, processes, laws, games, graphics, services, or exp ...

and producer.

Formation

As part of

Sega is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational video game and entertainment company headquartered in Shinagawa, Tokyo. Its international branches, Sega of America and Sega Europe, are headquartered in Irvine, California and London, r ...

's "support program for independent game creators", Yuji Naka left Sega's

Sonic Team is a video game developer owned by the Japanese video game company Sega as part of its Sega CS Research and Development No. 2 division. Sonic Team is best known for the long-running '' Sonic the Hedgehog'' series and games such as '' Nights ...

studio to start his own studio, joined by ten Sonic Team members. It had a starting capital of 10 million yen, 10% of which came from Sega in exchange for the

right of first refusal Right of first refusal (ROFR or RFR) is a contractual right that gives its holder the option to enter a business transaction with the owner of something, according to specified terms, before the owner is entitled to enter into that transaction ...

for publishing Prope games. Prope was founded on May 23, 2006 and it began operations on June 1, 2006. Prope intended to create games with a graphical style that appealed to both children and adults, and to explore the possibilities of developing both 3D and 2D games. Naka joined

Square Enix is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational holding company, production enterprise and entertainment conglomerate, best known for its ''Final Fantasy'', ''Dragon Quest'', ''Star Ocean'' and ''Kingdom Hearts'' role-playing video game ...

in January 2018, leaving the status of Prope uncertain. In March 2019, Naka confirmed that Prope had been reduced to a one-person company since the end of April 2017. Yuji Naka released ''SHOT2048'' under the Prope brand in December 2021. Due to Naka's multiple arrests for

insider trading Insider trading is the trading of a public company's stock or other securities (such as bonds or stock options) based on material, nonpublic information about the company. In various countries, some kinds of trading based on insider information ...

in late 2022, the company now has no active employees or management and is therefore technically

defunct Defunct (no longer in use or active) may refer to: * ''Defunct'' (video game), 2014 * Zombie process or defunct process, in Unix-like operating systems See also * * :Former entities * End-of-life product * Obsolescence Obsolescence is t ...

Games

Previously, the studio had been consistently linked with a sequel to '' Nights into Dreams...'', though '' Nights: Journey of Dreams'' was ultimately developed by

Sega Studio USA is a video game developer owned by the Japanese video game company Sega as part of its Sega CS Research and Development No. 2 division. Sonic Team is best known for the long-running ''Sonic the Hedgehog'' series and games such as '' Nights int ...

. Naka has claimed in an interview that he presently has no intention to revisit any of his former Sega properties. Prope's first two titles, the

Wii The Wii ( ) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was released on November 19, 2006, in North America and in December 2006 for most other Regional lockout, regions of the world. It is Nintendo's fifth major ho ...

rhythm game Rhythm game or rhythm action is a genre of music-themed action video game that challenges a player's sense of rhythm. Games in the genre typically focus on dance or the simulated performance of musical instruments, and require players to pres ...

'' Let's Tap'', and the

WiiWare WiiWare was a service that allowed Wii users to download games and applications specifically designed and developed for the Wii video game console made by Nintendo. These games and applications could only be purchased and downloaded from the Wii S ...

game '' Let's Catch'', were both released in December 2008. Both games were published by Sega. After a series of simplistic iOS games such as '' 10 Count Boxer'' and ''

Fluffy Bear Prope Ltd. is a now defunct Japanese video game development studio founded by Yuji Naka, a former Japanese video game programmer, designer and producer. Formation As part of Sega's "support program for independent game creators", Yuji Naka lef ...

'', under the iPrope label, Prope's next major game ''

Ivy the Kiwi? is a platform video game developed by Prope and designed by Yuji Naka. The Windows Mobile version was released in Japan in November 2009 and in North America in January 2010. That same year, versions for Wii and Nintendo DS were published by Namc ...

'' was released in November 2009 exclusively for

Windows Phone Windows Phone (WP) is a discontinued family of mobile operating systems developed by Microsoft for smartphones as the replacement successor to Windows Mobile and Zune. Windows Phone featured a new user interface derived from the Metro design la ...

, with

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washing ...

publishing it. In April 2009, it was ported to

and

DSiWare This is a list of games and applications, collectively known as DSiWare, for the Nintendo DSi handheld game console, available for download via the DSi Shop and unplayable on earlier DS models. An update released for the Nintendo 3DS in June 2011 ...

and published by

Bandai Namco also known as the Bandai Namco Group and generally Bandai Namco, is a Japanese multinational holding company, production enterprise and entertainment conglomerate headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, formed from the merger of Bandai and Namco on S ...

in Japan,

Xseed Games Xseed Games is an American video game company founded by former members of Square Enix USA. It later became a subsidiary of the Japanese game company Marvelous, providing the localization and publishing services for video games and related mat ...

in America and

Rising Star Games Rising Star Games Limited is a British video game publisher based in Hitchin. History Rising Star Games was founded on 10 July 2004 by Martin Defries as a joint venture between Bergsala Holding and Japanese publisher Marvelous Entertainment ...

in Europe as Prope's parent company Sega refused to publish the game and

decided not to publish the game outside Asia. In 2010, an expanded physical release (in contrast to a digital one) was released for

and

Nintendo DS The is a handheld game console produced by Nintendo, released globally across 2004 and 2005. The DS, an initialism for "Developers' System" or "Dual Screen", introduced distinctive new features to handheld games: two LCD screens working in tan ...

, featuring 50 levels (whereas the downloadable version featured 25) as well as original backgrounds and music for each level. In 2011, Prope released ''Real Ski Jump'', which, as of 2014, had been downloaded 4 million times.

iOS/Android

''Published under the iPrope and aPrope label respectively'' * '' Let's Tap'' (2009) * ''10 Count Boxer'' (2009) * ''Fluffy Bear'' (2009) * ''Just Half'' (2010) * ''PD -prope discoverer-'' (2011) * ''Real Ski Jump HD'' * ''Get the Time'' (2011) * ''Past Camera'' (2011) (photography app - not a video game) * ''Power of Coin'' (2011) * ''Nine Dungeon'' (2011) * ''Real Animals HD'' (2011) * ''Flick Pig'' (2011) * ''Real SkiJump Battle'' (2012) * ''

'' (2012) * ''Buddy Monster'' (2012) * ''Real Whales'' (2013) * ''E-Anbai Just Right'' (2014) * ''Samurai Santaro'' (2014) * ''Kodama'' (2015) * ''Real Whales'' (2015) * ''Shock Maze VR'' (2015) * ''Crazy Open Car'' (2016) * ''God & the Bell Kitty'' (2016) * ''10 Battle'' (2016) * ''Pirates of Coin'' (2016) * ''Kizumon'' (2017) * ''Shot2048'' (2021)

Nintendo DS

* ''

'' (2010)

Nintendo 3DS

* '' StreetPass Mansion'' (2013) * '' StreetPass Fishing'' (2015) * ''Streetpass Chef'' (2016)

PlayStation 3

* ''

Digimon All-Star Rumble ''Digimon All-Star Rumble'' is a fighting video game developed by Prope and published by Bandai Namco Games for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 video game consoles. The game is part of the '' Digimon'' franchise and features characters from acr ...

'' (2014)

PlayStation Portable

* ''

Digimon Adventure , known as ''Digimon: Digital Monsters'' in English-speaking territories, is a 1999 Japanese anime television series produced by Toei Animation in cooperation with WiZ, Bandai and Fuji Television. It is the first anime series in the ''D ...

'' (2013)

Wii

* '' Let's Catch'' (2008) * '' Let's Tap'' (2008) * ''

'' (2010) * '' Fishing Resort'' (2011) * '' Rodea the Sky Soldier'' (2015)

Windows Mobile

* ''

'' (2009)

Xbox 360

* ''

'' (2014)

References

{{reflist

External links

Prope Official WebSite (Japanese)SEGA x PROPEiPrope Official Website (English)
Video game companies of Japan Video game development companies Video game companies established in 2006 Japanese companies established in 2006