is a Japanese

video game development Video game development (or gamedev) is the process of developing a video game. The effort is undertaken by a developer, ranging from a single person to an international team dispersed across the globe. Development of traditional commercial PC ...

and

localization Localization or localisation may refer to: Biology * Localization of function, locating psychological functions in the brain or nervous system; see Linguistic intelligence * Localization of sensation, ability to tell what part of the body is a ...

company specializing in role-playing video games,

visual novel A , often abbreviated as VN, is a form of digital semi-interactive fiction. Visual novels are often associated with and used in the medium of video games, but are not always labeled as such themselves. They combine a textual narrative with sta ...

s and

adventure game An adventure game is a video game genre in which the player assumes the role of a protagonist in an interactive story driven by exploration and/or Puzzle video game, puzzle-solving. The Video game genres, genre's focus on story allows it to draw ...

s. The company was founded in 1984 as Chunsoft Co., Ltd. and merged with

Spike Spike, spikes, or spiking may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Books * ''The Spike'' (novel), a novel by Arnaud de Borchgrave * ''The Spike'' (book), a nonfiction book by Damien Broderick * ''The Spike'', a starship in Peter F. Hamilto ...

in 2012. It is owned by

Dwango The Dial-up Wide-Area Network Game Operation, better known by the acronym DWANGO, was an early online gaming service based in the United States. Launched in 1994, it was originally known for its compatibility with ''Doom'', for which it function ...

. They created games such as the first five '' Dragon Quest'' installments and the ''

Mystery Dungeon ''Mystery Dungeon'', known in Japan as , is a series of roguelike role-playing video games. Most were developed by Chunsoft, now Spike Chunsoft since the merging in 2012, and select games were developed by other companies with Chunsoft's permis ...

'' franchise as Chunsoft, and the '' Conception'' series as Spike Chunsoft. They also developed titles such as ''

The Portopia Serial Murder Case , often translated to ''The Portopia Serial Murder Case'' in English, is an adventure game designed by Yuji Horii and published by Enix. It was first released on the NEC PC-6001 in June 1983, and has since been ported to other personal computers ...

'', the ''Sound Novel'' series (consisting of '' Otogirisō'', ''

Kamaitachi no Yoru , released in English as ''Banshee's Last Cry'', is a visual novel created by Chunsoft. It was first released for Super Famicom (the Japanese version of the Super NES) and was later ported to other consoles. An English localized version of the ...

'', '' Machi'' and '' 428: Shibuya Scramble'') and the ''

Zero Escape ''Zero Escape'', formerly released in Japan as , is a series of adventure games directed and written by Kotaro Uchikoshi. The first two entries in the series, '' Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors'' (2009) and '' Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Re ...

'' series as Chunsoft. Spike developed '' Danganronpa'' before the merger.

History

Chunsoft

Chunsoft was founded by

Koichi Nakamura is a Japanese video game designer. A programming prodigy, Nakamura gained fame while still in high school; in 1982, he entered Enix's first national programming contest and claimed runner-up prize with his entry, ''Door Door''. In 1984, he found ...

, a video game designer and programmer who had worked with

Enix was a Japanese video game publisher that produced video games, anime and manga. Enix is known for publishing the ''Dragon Quest'' series of role-playing video games. The company was founded by Yasuhiro Fukushima on September 22, 1975, as . Th ...

, including the popular '' Dragon Quest'' franchise until '' Dragon Quest V''. The "Chun" in the company name is from the first

kanji are the logographic Chinese characters taken from the Chinese family of scripts, Chinese script and used in the writing of Japanese language, Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese ...

Naka ( 中) of the company founder's name; Naka is read as "Chun" in Japanese Mahjong. This name would also appear in Nakamura's first work with Enix, titled ''

Door Door is a single-screen puzzle-platform game developed by Enix and published in Japan in 1983. Originally released for the NEC PC-8801, it was ported to other platforms, including the Family Computer. Controlling a small character named Chun, the p ...

'' in 1983. '' Otogirisō'' marked Chunsoft's debut brand. Following that, successive genre-trailblazing titles '' Torneko no Daibōken: Fushigi no Dungeon'', ''

'', and '' Shiren the Wanderer'' established the company's good reputation. Nakamura himself had to move away from programming in order to run the company. For a time, the company's products were considered mediocre, but ''3-Nen B-Gumi Kinpachi Sensei: Densetsu no Kyoudan ni Tate!'' was a hit that showed signs of recovery. During the development of '' Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Red Rescue Team and Blue Rescue Team'', Kouji Maruta, one of the programmers for these two games, and contributed previously on ''

EarthBound ''EarthBound'', released in Japan as is a role-playing video game developed by Creatures (company), Ape Inc. and HAL Laboratory and published by Nintendo for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. The second entry in the Mother (video game s ...

'' and '' Shiren the Wanderer 2'', stated the company went through bad business performance, as employees from Chunsoft would leave the company progressively due to this issue. The game's success not only helped giving more popularity in the ''Mystery Dungeon'' franchise, it also helped Chunsoft from avoiding bankruptcy. Later in 2005, it was bought by

and became a

subsidiary A subsidiary, subsidiary company or daughter company is a company owned or controlled by another company, which is called the parent company or holding company. Two or more subsidiaries that either belong to the same parent company or having a s ...

of the company. Before the project,

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 ...

were helping Chunsoft in developing and releasing their games for the

Dreamcast The is a home video game console released by Sega on November 27, 1998, in Japan; September 9, 1999, in North America; and October 14, 1999, in Europe. It was the first sixth-generation video game console, preceding Sony's PlayStation 2, N ...

. From 2005 to 2010, Sega have made a collaboration with Chunsoft titled "SEGA×CHUN PROJECT". Their goal was to provide support and sales for development funds, such as the Nintendo DS remake of '' Mystery Dungeon: Shiren the Wanderer'' or '' 428: Shibuya Scramble''.

Spike

Merger

In 2012, Chunsoft merged with its sister company Spike and the new company would be called Spike Chunsoft.志田英邦『ゲーム・マエストロ Vol. 2 プロデューサー/ディレクター編(2)』毎日コミュニケーションズ、2000年、p.16。中村光一インタビュー。

Subsidiary

In 2017, Spike Chunsoft established a North American subsidiary based in Long Beach, California to carry out localization and publishing of its own games, in addition to games by its sister company 5pb./Mages under a newly formed partnership. Their first game under the Mages partnership was the

Microsoft Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...

version of '' Steins;Gate'', taking over publishing of the game from Mages in 2018; they have since continued publishing further games in the ''

Science Adventure ''Science Adventure'' is a multimedia series consisting of interconnected science fiction stories, created mainly by Mages, Nitroplus, and Chiyomaru Studio. The main entries mostly take the form of visual novel video games, but side entries span ...

'' series, including '' Steins;Gate 0'' and ''

Chaos;Child ''Chaos;Child'' (stylized as ''ChäoS;Child'') is a visual novel video game developed by 5pb. It is the fourth main entry in the ''Science Adventure'' series, and a thematic sequel to ''Chaos;Head'' (2008). It was released in Japan in 2014 for Xb ...

''. On July 16, 2020, NIS America announced that ''Danganronpa'' games on the Playstation Store will be removed. Spike Chunsoft subsequently announced on July 22, 2020 that they will take on publishing the ''Danganronpa'' series outside of Japan. Similarly, the Nintendo Switch and Microsoft Windows release of '' Shiren the Wanderer: The Tower of Fortune and the Dice of Fate'' would not be released by Aksys but by their subsidiary.

Titles

Chunsoft

Published and/or developed

Developed only

Spike Chunsoft

Published and/or developed

Developed only

Published western third-party games in Japan

Published internationally by Spike Chunsoft, Inc.

This table lists video games published internationally by Spike Chunsoft's American subsidiary Spike Chunsoft, Inc. since its foundation on December 1, 2017. Outside of titles from Spike Chunsoft in Japan, the company publishes titles from

Mages Mage most commonly refers to: * Mage (paranormal) or magician, a practitioner of magic derived from supernatural or occult sources * Mage (fantasy) or magician, a type of character in mythology, folklore, and fiction *Mage, a character class in s ...

(which was also part of Spike Chunsoft's parent company

until July 2019) and from other companies.

Notes

References

External links

* {{Authority control Video game companies of Japan Video game development companies Video game publishers Video game companies established in 1984 Kadokawa Corporation subsidiaries Japanese companies established in 1984 Mystery Dungeon Software companies based in Tokyo