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 ...

and publisher.

History

Interchannel was founded on October 2, 1995 as an

NEC is a Japanese multinational information technology and electronics corporation, headquartered at the NEC Supertower in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. It provides IT and network solutions, including cloud computing, artificial intelligence (AI), Inte ...

subsidiary named . Its founding was a result of divisions within

being spun off. NEC Interchannel took over

NEC Avenue was a Japanese Music publisher, music and video game publisher part of NEC. History NEC Avenue was founded in 1987 as a record label within NEC. NEC Avenue eventually got involved with video games, and secured licenses to produce console versio ...

's music and game operations in October 1997, then acquired its music subsidiary, NEC Avenue Music Publishing, in March 1998. 70 percent of the company was sold to

Index Corporation , formerly known as , is a Japanese corporate information and communications technology company owned by Sawada Holdings. "Index Corporation" was a corporate name used by three different Japanese companies, between 1997 and 2016, the last one b ...

for approximately 3 billion yen ($28 million) in 2004. Around this time, NEC Avenue Music Publishing became . Interchannel's games tended to be Japanese only, however the company established Gamebridge Ltd., a UK-based joint venture with

Bergsala Bergsala AB is a Swedish distribution company based in Kungsbacka. It was established in 1976 and has operated as the agent and distributor of Nintendo products in the Nordic countries since 1981. Bergsala's administrative center and warehouse is ...

, that published its games in

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

. Only ten games were ever published. In 2006, Index Corporation opened their own music label, Index Music, from assets acquired from IC Avenue, where they specialize in publishing music from kids'

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 ...

series. In 2008, T.Y. Limited took over their music label, and in 2013, the music label was transferred over to

Dreamusic is a Japanese record label also working as a subsidiary of TY Limited Incorporated. Its chairman is Tom Yoda, ex-chairman of Avex Group. Labels * Dreamusic Overseas * Teenage Symphony Label * Feel Mee (from assets acquired from Interchannel i ...

under a new label, Feel Mee. In November 2007,

GungHo Online Entertainment is a Japanese video game developer and publisher. They are primarily known for hosting the Japanese server of '' Ragnarok Online'' (developed by its listed Korean subsidiary Gravity), as well as their development of '' Ragnarok DS'' for the N ...

acquired the video game assets of Interchannel from Index Corporation, however, the Interchannel logo and copyright was maintained by Index Corporation. On March 1, 2010,

Lightweight Lightweight is a weight class in combat sports and rowing (sport), rowing. Boxing Professional boxing The lightweight division is over 130 pounds (59 kilograms) and up to 135 pounds (61.2 kilograms) boxing weight classes, weight class in the spor ...

acquired Interchannel. On July 21, 2023, video game developer M2 purchased the rights of NEC Interchannel games published for the Super CD-ROM² systems from Lightweight. Despite this, NEC Interchannel only published two titles in the system: '' Puyo Puyo CD Tsuu'' and ''De-Ja''.

References

External links

Official website (Interchannel)Official website (NEC Interchannel)MobyGames
Amusement companies of Japan IXIT Corporation Software companies based in Tokyo Video game companies established in 1995 Video game companies disestablished in 2010 Defunct video game companies of Japan Japanese companies established in 1995 Japanese companies disestablished in 2010 Former NEC subsidiaries {{japan-videogame-company-stub