(styled CiNG) was an

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

video game developer 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 ...

based out of

Fukuoka is the sixth-largest city in Japan, the second-largest port city after Yokohama, and the capital city of Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan. The city is built along the shores of Hakata Bay, and has been a center of international commerce since ancie ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. The company, a small development house employing only 29 people, was founded in April 1999, and was run by Takuya Miyagawa, who served as President and CEO. Miyagawa also acted as the producer on all of Cing's titles. The company filed for bankruptcy on March 1, 2010. Since releasing ''

Glass Rose is a point-and-click adventure psychological horror video game developed by Cing and Capcom's Production Studio 3 and published by Capcom for the PlayStation 2. It was released in Japan on November 6, 2003 and later in Europe on March 26, 200 ...

'' for the PlayStation 2 in 2003, Cing had enjoyed a close working relationship with

Nintendo is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto, Japan. It develops video games and video game consoles. Nintendo was founded in 1889 as by craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi and originally produce ...

. Two projects were created in cooperation with the publisher for their

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 ...

handheld system, both of which received sequels (one for the

and one for 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 ...

). Cing also released the critically acclaimed ''

Little King's Story ''Little King's Story'' is a real-time strategy Life simulation game, life simulation role-playing video game co-developed by Cing and Town Factory for the Nintendo Wii. The game was published by Rising Star Games in Australia on April 22, 2009 an ...

'' for the Wii.

History

Founded on April 22, 1999, Cing was created as a means of providing gamers with new and unique video game experiences. The studio's first project was providing the core production for

Capcom is a Japanese video game developer and video game publisher, publisher. It has created a number of List of best-selling video game franchises, multi-million-selling game franchises, with its most commercially successful being ''Resident Evil' ...

's ''

'', an adventure title for

Sony , commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professional ...

PlayStation 2 The PlayStation 2 (PS2) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on 4 March 2000, in North America on 26 October 2000, in Europe on 24 November 2000, and in Australia on 3 ...

. Unfortunately, despite having

Masahiro Matsuoka is a Japanese drummer and actor. He is a member of Tokio, a Johnny Entertainment musical group. His nicknames are Mabo and Maa-kun. He starred as Shinichi Ozaki in '' Godzilla: Final Wars'', and comedy series ''Yasuko to Kenji''. Career As a ...

's likeness (from the popular

ese pop group Tokio) for its main character, the title failed to prove successful at retail and was never localized in

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

, although it did see a European release. In early 2005, Cing released the adventure title '' Another Code: Two Memories'' for the DS, which marked their first project produced with Nintendo. The game made extensive use of the various unique capabilities of the DS, and proved to be a fairly moderate success. The studio's next project, '' Hotel Dusk: Room 215'', was another adventure title making specific use of the DS functionality, including holding the system sideways to play (similar to Nintendo's ''

Brain Age ''Brain Age'', known as ''Dr Kawashima's Brain Training'' in PAL regions, is a series of video games developed and published by Nintendo, based on the work of Ryuta Kawashima. Video games The ''Brain Age'' games, known as ''Brain Training'' ...

'' titles). On March 13, 2007, Cing announced their next-generation video game title for the Nintendo

, titled ''

''. The game was released in Australia and Europe in April 2009, in North America on July 21, 2009, and in Japan on September 3, 2009. In November 2009, Cing announced '' Last Window: The Secret of Cape West'', the sequel to '' Hotel Dusk: Room 215'' for Nintendo DS. It was released on January 14, 2010 in Japan and September 17, 2010 in Europe. Cing filed for bankruptcy in Japan on March 1, 2010. The company was reportedly suffering from liabilities of 256 million yen (USD 2.9m/EUR 2.1m).

Games developed

References

External links

* *
Cing
profile on

IGN ''IGN'' (formerly ''Imagine Games Network'') is an American video game and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa distri ...

{{Cing franchises, state=expanded Privately held companies of Japan Japanese companies established in 1999 Japanese companies disestablished in 2010 Video game companies established in 1999 Video game companies disestablished in 2010 Companies that have filed for bankruptcy in Japan Defunct video game companies of Japan Video game development companies Companies based in Fukuoka Prefecture