, formerly and previously spelled in English as VisualArt's, is a Japanese

publishing company Publishing is the activities of making information, literature, music, software, and other content, physical or digital, available to the public for sale or free of charge. Traditionally, the term publishing refers to the creation and distribu ...

which specializes in publishing and distributing

visual novel A visual novel (VN) is a form of digital interactive fiction. Visual novels are often associated with the medium of video games, but are not always labeled as such themselves. They combine a textual narrative with static or animated illustratio ...

s for a large list of game developers. Visual Arts has developed game engines their brands currently use, including the current engine, called Siglus, and older engines RealLive and AVG32. Visual Arts also handles the distribution of these games. The games published are mostly for a male audience, though they also publish games targeted towards women as well. They are well known for publishing games developed by Key, such as '' Kanon'', ''

Air An atmosphere () is a layer of gases that envelop an astronomical object, held in place by the gravity of the object. A planet retains an atmosphere when the gravity is great and the temperature of the atmosphere is low. A stellar atmosph ...

'', and '' Clannad''. The company has coined a new type of visual novel called the kinetic novel where unlike in visual novels where the player is periodically given choices to make, there are no choices whatsoever and the player watches the game progress as if it were a movie. One of Key's games entitled '' Planetarian: The Reverie of a Little Planet'' was the first game produced under the kinetic novel name. In addition to games, Visual Arts also releases music CDs for video game music. Of special note among the artists sold under this label is I've Sound, a

techno Techno is a genre of electronic dance music (EDM) which is generally produced for use in a continuous DJ set, with tempos being in the range from 120 to 150 beats per minute (bpm). The central rhythm is typically in common time ( ) and often ...

trance Trance is a state of semi-consciousness in which a person is not self-aware and is either altogether unresponsive to external stimuli (but nevertheless capable of pursuing and realizing an aim) or is selectively responsive in following the dir ...

music production group who was the first in the adult game industry to perform at the

Nippon Budokan The , often shortened to simply Budokan, is an indoor arena in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. It was originally built for the inaugural Olympic judo competition in the 1964 Summer Olympics. The Budokan was a popular venue for Japanese professional wres ...

in October 2005. Visual Arts is also involved with transplanting games they have previously published to be playable on

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 ...

Prototype A prototype is an early sample, model, or release of a product built to test a concept or process. It is a term used in a variety of contexts, including semantics, design, electronics, and Software prototyping, software programming. A prototype ...

manages this portion of Visual Arts known as . Visual Arts launched a web magazine called ''Visualstyle'' on October 26, 2007. Visual Arts launched a

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

channel called Visual Channel in July 2008 where videos are posted which are related to the games and companies under Visual Arts. In October 2008, Visual Arts launched their VA Bunko

light novel A is a type of Genre fiction, popular literature novel from Japan usually classified as young adult fiction, generally targeting Adolescence, teens to Young adult, twenties or older. The definition is very vague, and wide-ranging. The abbr ...

imprint, which includes light novels based on games produced by brands under Visual Arts. Visual Arts' president Takahiro Baba announced retirement in July 2023, passing on his role to Genki Tenkumo (also known as Tōya Okano) and transferred his share to

Tencent Tencent Holdings Ltd. ( zh, s=腾讯, p=Téngxùn) is a Chinese Multinational corporation, multinational technology Conglomerate (company), conglomerate and holding company headquartered in Shenzhen. It is one of the highest grossing multimed ...

, making Visual Arts a child company of Tencent.

Partner companies

Game brands

*13 cm *Amedeo *Anfini *B_Works *Bonbee! *Catwalk *Concept *Dress *E.G.O. *Elysion *Flady *Frill *Garden *G-clef *Ham Ham Soft *Hadashi Shōjo *Hayashigumi *Image Craft *Issue *Jidaiya * Key * KineticNovel *Kur-Mar-Ter *KuroCo *Lapis Lazuli *LimeLight *Mana *Miss Chifu *Moe. *Ningyou Yuugisya *Ocelot *OPTiM *Pass Guard *Pekoe *Playm *Radi *Realdeal *Rex *Rio * Saga Planets *Sirius *Spray * Studio Mebius *Tone Work's *Zero *Zion

Music related

*Cure Records * fripSide * I've Sound *

Key Sounds Label Key Sounds Label is a Japanese independent record label formed in 2001 as a brand of the publishing company Visual Arts. Key Sounds Label was formed to catalog and release music related to visual novels produced by the brand Key, also under Visu ...

*OTSU *Queens Label

Defunct

*Akiko *Akumi *Craftwork *Culotte *D-XX *Giant Panda *Harvest *Kamen Shōkai *Manbō Soft *Miyabi *Otherwise * Ram *Tamachadō *Words

References

External links

*
Visual Arts product website

Visual Arts Motto official website

Visual Channel
at

VA Bunko official website
{{Authority control Tencent Games Japanese companies established in 1991 Video game companies established in 1991 Amusement companies of Japan Video game development companies Video game companies of Japan Key (company) Book publishing companies of Japan Japanese subsidiaries of foreign companies 2023 mergers and acquisitions