Meta:Chunsoft Co., Ltd.
| Chunsoft 株式会社 チュンソフト | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Information | |
| Type | |
| Industry | Planning • development • sales and operation of game content |
| Founded | April 9, 1984 |
| Founder | Koichi Nakamura |
| Location | Minato-ku, Tokyo, Japan 
|
| Key people | Koichi Nakamura (Representative Director and President) Yasuhiko Sameshima (Executive Vice President) Seiichiro Nagahata (Director) Shigeru Nakajima (Auditor) Junko Yaguchi (Auditor) |
| Revenue | ¥480.9 million (2012) |
| Operating income | |
| Net income | |
| Total asset | |
| # of employees | 170 (January 2011) |
| Owner | |
| Parent | Dwango |
| Subsidiary | |
| Website | Archived Official website (Japan) |
| Status | Merged |
Chunsoft Co., Ltd. (Japanese: 株式会社 チュンソフト) was a Japanese video game development studio specializing in role-playing video games, and visual novels. The company was founded in 1984, and merged with Spike in 2012 to become Spike Chunsoft.
They created games such as the first five Dragon Quest installments and the Mystery Dungeon franchise. They also developed titles such as The Portopia Serial Murder Case, the Sound Novel series, consisting of Otogirisō, Kamaitachi no Yoru, Machi, and 428: Shibuya Scramble and the Zero Escape series.
History
Chunsoft was founded by Koichi Nakamura, a video game designer and programmer who had worked with Enix, including the popular Dragon Quest franchise until Dragon Quest V. The "Chun" in the company name is from the first kanji Naka (中) of the company founder name; Naka is read as "Chun" in Japanese Mahjong. This name would also appear in the company's first work with Enix, titled Door Door in 1983. Otogirisō marked Chunsoft's debut brand. Following that, successive genre-trailblazing titles 
Torneko's Great Adventure: Mystery Dungeon
, Kamaitachi no Yoru, and Shiren the Wanderer series 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 and Blue Rescue Team, Koji Malta, one of the programmers for these two games, and who contributed previously on EarthBound and Mystery Dungeon 2: Shiren the Wanderer, stated the company went through a 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 going through a failure. 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.
In 2012, Chunsoft merged with its sister company Spike and the new company would be called Spike Chunsoft.
Works in the Mystery Dungeon Franchise
See Also
| Companies Navbox |
|---|
Aksys Games • Bandai Namco (Bandai • Namco) • Creatures Inc. • h.a.n.d. • Konami • Neverland • Nintendo • NIS America • Overlap • The Pokémon Company • Rakish • Reef Entertainment • SEGA (Atlus) • Spike Chunsoft Co., Ltd (Chunsoft • Spike) • Spike Chunsoft Inc.  • Shogakukan • Square Enix (Enix • SquareSoft) • VIZ Media
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- Article on Wikipedia.