is a Japanese video game development and localization company specializing in

role-playing video game A role-playing video game (commonly referred to as simply a role-playing game or RPG, as well as a computer role-playing game or CRPG) is a video game genre where the player controls the actions of a character (or several party members) immers ...

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-solving. The genre's focus on story allows it to draw heavily from other narrative-based m ...

s. The company was founded in 1984 as Chunsoft Co., Ltd. and merged with Spike in 2012. It is owned by Dwango. They created games such as the first five ''

Dragon Quest previously published as ''Dragon Warrior'' in North America until 2005, is a franchise of Japanese role-playing video games created by Armor Project ( Yuji Horii), Bird Studio (Akira Toriyama) and Sugiyama Kobo ( Koichi Sugiyama) to its pu ...

'' installments and the '' Mystery Dungeon'' 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 is a visual novel produced and published by Chunsoft. Marketed by the company as a "sound novel" rather than a video game, it is the progenitor of the developer and publisher's sound novel series and of the format of electronic entertainment now ...

'', ''

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'' series as Chunsoft. Spike developed ''

Danganronpa is a Japanese video game franchise created by Kazutaka Kodaka and developed and owned by Spike Chunsoft (formerly Spike). The series primarily surrounds various groups of apparent high school students who are forced into murdering each oth ...

'' 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 fou ...

, a video game designer and programmer who had worked with Enix, including the popular ''

'' franchise until ''

Dragon Quest V ''Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride'' is a role-playing video game and the fifth installment in the ''Dragon Quest'' video game series, second of the Zenithian Trilogy. Originally developed by Chunsoft and published by Enix Corporation, ...

''. The "Chun" in the company name is from the first

kanji are the logographic Chinese characters taken from the Chinese script and used in the writing of Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese and are still used, along with the subse ...

Naka (

中中 may refer to: * 中 (U+4E2D), a Unicode character found in the CJK Unified Ideographs (Unicode block) * China in general * Chinese culture in general * Central District, Taichung, Central District (Mandarin zh, links=no, c=中區, p=Zhōng-Q ...

) 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'' in 1983. ''

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

'', and ''

Shiren the Wanderer is a video game series of roguelike and role-playing games developed by Spike Chunsoft (formerly Chunsoft). Unlike licensed crossovers within the ''Mystery Dungeon'' franchise, this series features original characters; including the eponymous r ...

'' 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 ''Shiren the Wanderer 2: Oni Invasion! Shiren Castle!'' is a 2000 role-playing video game developed by Chunsoft and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo 64. It is the second main entry in the ''Shiren the Wanderer'' series, itself part of the l ...

'', 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 Dwango and became a subsidiary of the company. Before the project, Sega were helping Chunsoft in developing and releasing their games for the Dreamcast. 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 version of ''

Steins;Gate ''Steins;Gate'' is a 2009 science fiction visual novel game developed by 5pb. and Nitroplus. It is the second game in the ''Science Adventure'' series, following ''Chaos;Head''. The story follows a group of students as they discover and develo ...

'', taking over publishing of the game from Mages in 2018; they have since continued publishing further games in the '' Science Adventure'' series, including ''

Steins;Gate 0 ''Steins;Gate 0'' is a visual novel video game developed by 5pb. It is part of the ''Science Adventure'' series, and is set in the period of the 2009 game ''Steins;Gate''. It was released by 5pb. in Japan for the PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4 an ...

'' and '' Chaos;Child''. 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 (which was also part of Spike Chunsoft's parent company Dwango 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