, commonly referred to as Matrix Software, is 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 ...

located 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 ...

. Founded in July 1994 by former members of

Climax Entertainment was a Japanese video game development company. It was a small company, with just 20 staff in 1996. Climax got its start during the 16-bit era, primarily developing games for the Sega Genesis console. During the 32-bit era, some members of the t ...

and

Telenet Japan was a Japanese Video game developer, video game and software developer founded in October 1983 by Kazuyuki Fukushima. The company had several video game divisions including: Wolf Team, Laser Soft, Renovation Game (Japanese publishing division), ...

, the company has since created games for a number of systems beginning with their

action-adventure game An action-adventure game is a video game hybrid genre that combines core elements from both the action game and adventure game genres. Definition An action adventure game can be defined as a game with a mix of elements from an action ...

title ''

Alundra , released in Europe as ''The Adventures of Alundra'', is an action-adventure video game developed by Matrix Software and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation. It was originally released in 1997 in Japan, January 199 ...

'' in April 1997. Matrix has teamed with other developers such as

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 '' ...

and Chunsoft to produce games for existing franchises such as ''

Final Fantasy is a Japanese fantasy Anthology series, anthology media franchise created by Hironobu Sakaguchi which is owned, developed, and published by Square Enix (formerly Square (video game company), Square). The franchise centers on a series of fanta ...

'' and ''

Dragon Quest previously published as ''Dragon Warrior'' in North America until 2005, is a series of role-playing video games created by Japanese game designer Yuji Horii (Armor Project), character designer Akira Toriyama (Bird Studio), and composer Koi ...

'', as well as other

anime is a Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, , in Japan and in Ja ...

and

manga are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long history in earlier Japanese art. The term is used in Japan to refer to both comics ...

properties. In addition to game console development, Matrix Software has also made games for various Japanese

mobile phone A mobile phone or cell phone is a portable telephone that allows users to make and receive calls over a radio frequency link while moving within a designated telephone service area, unlike fixed-location phones ( landline phones). This rad ...

brands since 2001.

Company history

Matrix Software was founded in July 1994 by Kosuke Ohori and three friends who had each been involved in the video games industry for many years beforehand. Kosuke, a veteran of the game development industry since high school, joined with former members of

and

to create a company that he felt would "bring people serious game content". Nearly three years after their establishment, the company released their first game, ''

'' for the

PlayStation is a video gaming brand owned and produced by Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE), a division of Japanese conglomerate Sony. Its flagship products consists of a series of home video game consoles produced under the brand; it also consists ...

game console in April 1997, which would prove popular enough to receive a sequel two years later. In September 1999, Matrix obtained their first business partner in Chunsoft, with whom they collaborated to create a spin-off to their popular ''

'' series, '' Torneko: The Last Hope''. Since then, the company would join with other companies to create games for other entertainment franchises such as

Yoshihiro Togashi is a Japanese manga artist. He began drawing manga at an early age, before being recognized for his talent by the publishing company Shueisha while attending college. Togashi has authored several different manga series in different Literary ge ...

's ''

YuYu Hakusho is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Yoshihiro Togashi. It tells the story of Yusuke Urameshi, a teenage delinquent who is struck and killed by a car while saving a child's life. After several tests presented to him ...

'',

Eiichiro Oda is a Japanese manga artist and the creator of the series ''One Piece'', the best-selling manga in history and the best-selling comic series printed in volume. With more than 520 million copies of ''One Piece'' in circulation worldwide ...

's ''

One Piece ''One Piece'' (stylized in all caps) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Eiichiro Oda. It follows the adventures of Monkey D. Luffy and his crew, the Straw Hat Pirates, as he explores the Grand Line in search of the myt ...

'', and

's ''

''. In later years, Matrix would focus on

mobile games A mobile game is a video game that is typically played on a mobile phone. The term also refers to all games that are played on any portable device, including from mobile phone (feature phone or smartphone), tablet, PDA to handheld game conso ...

, developing

casual games A casual game is a video game targeted at a mass market audience, as opposed to a Hardcore gamer, hardcore game, which is targeted at Gamer#Dedication spectrum, hobbyist gamers. Casual games may exhibit any type of gameplay and genre. They genera ...

as well as ports of games in the '' Professor Layton'' series.

Games developed

References

External links

Matrix Software Homepage
Software companies based in Tokyo Video game companies established in 1994 Video game companies of Japan Video game development companies Japanese companies established in 1994 {{Japan-videogame-company-stub

Company history

Games developed

See also

References

External links