was a Japanese

video game developer A video game developer is 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 business with em ...

. The company name was apparently an

acronym An acronym is a type of abbreviation consisting of a phrase whose only pronounced elements are the initial letters or initial sounds of words inside that phrase. Acronyms are often spelled with the initial Letter (alphabet), letter of each wor ...

for Computer Amusement Visualizer, although the company's web site also claimed it referred to

caviar Caviar or caviare is a food consisting of salt-cured roe of the family Acipenseridae. Caviar is considered a delicacy and is eaten as a garnish or spread. Traditionally, the term caviar refers only to roe from wild sturgeon in the Caspi ...

. The company was founded on March 1, 2000, and headquartered in

Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...

. Its shareholders included Amuse Capital, Tokuma Shoten, Tohokushinsha Film Corporation, Nippon Television Network Corporation, Tokyo FM Broadcasting,

Mitsubishi Corporation is a Japanese general trading company ( ''sogo shosha'') and a core member of the Mitsubishi Group. For much of the post-war period, Mitsubishi Corporation has been the largest of the five great ''sogo shosha'' (Mitsubishi, Mitsui, Itochu, S ...

, and Hayao Nakayama. Cavia was best known for the '' Drakengard'' series, the first title in the '' Nier'' series (a spin-off of the former) and two '' Resident Evil'' rail shooters: '' The Umbrella Chronicles'' and '' The Darkside Chronicles''. In October 2005, the company was sold to AQ Interactive, who became a holding company responsible for the management of subsidiary companies as well as sales and promotion of game software. The old company's game planning & development business was transferred to a newly established Cavia Inc. In July 2010, the company was officially disbanded and absorbed into AQ Interactive. ''Nier'', released in May 2010, was the studio's last game. Despite the closure, some members of the development staff from ''Nier'', including director

Yoko Taro is a Japanese video game director and scenario writer. Starting his career at the now defunct game developer Cavia, his best-known work is on the action role-playing video game series '' Drakengard'', and its spin-offs, '' Nier'' and '' Nie ...

, went on to produce a prequel to the ''Drakengard'' series, '' Drakengard 3'', under Access Games and published by

Square Enix is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational holding company, video game publisher and entertainment conglomerate. It releases role-playing video game, role-playing game franchises, such as ''Final Fantasy'', ''Dragon Quest'', and '' ...

. Former members of Cavia have either gone freelance, or joined other development teams within Marvelous AQL (created from the merger of AQ Interactive), Comcept, Tango Gameworks, FromSoftware or rejoined the teams at

Namco was a Japanese multinational video game and entertainment company founded in 1955. It operated video arcades and amusement parks globally, and produced video games, films, toys, and arcade cabinets. Namco was one of the most influential c ...

where members of Cavia were from originally. Former member Yoichi Take (also previously of Namco) left on December 1, 2006, to start his own development studio, .

Games

References

{{Reflist

External links

Official website
via

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American 501(c)(3) organization, non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including web ...

Software companies based in Tokyo Japanese companies established in 2000 Video game companies established in 2000 Video game companies disestablished in 2010 Defunct video game companies of Japan Video game development companies Japanese companies disestablished in 2010 AQ Interactive