Slashdot Log In
The Biggest Game Dev You've Never Heard Of
Posted by
Zonk
on Fri May 19, '06 12:33 PM
from the busy-little-ninjas dept.
from the busy-little-ninjas dept.
simoniker writes "Japan-based game developer Tose has 1,000 employees, and has created 1,100 game SKUs since 1979 (including Final Fantasy GBA versions, though they can't mention it in this interview!), but they're basically unknown, because they're 'game development ninjas', and 'refuse to put [their] names on the game'. Odd stuff."
Related Stories
[+]
Tose - Gaming's Little Secret 12 comments
1up has a piece up looking at the fine folks at Tose, the secret development ninjas behind a number of popular games. This group takes contracts from other developers, and purposefully keeps its name off of the final product. They're the developers of many high profile games, and very few gamers have ever heard of them. If they do sound familiar, it may be because we had a discussion about these folks back in May of last year. 1up's article covers some of the same ground as Gamasutra's, dealing with Tose's unique relationship with developers and their unusually secretive nature. They do, however, dig up the names of some of the shops Tose has worked with, including outfits like Nintendo, Capcom, Namco, Sony, Square Enix, Electronic Arts and THQ. They also point out a few games they know to be Tose's handiwork; the GBA ports of the Final Fantasy titles, Super Princess Peach, and Metal Gear Solid Ghost Babel all bear the company's mark. The veil is cracking, then, but for the most part this group stands as a unique company in the games industry: a development house with little interest in press attention.
[+]
Return of the Game Development Ninjas! 19 comments
simoniker writes "After being exposed in 2006 as 'the biggest game developer you've never heard of', with over 1,100 employees at the time, Executives from Tose have been speaking to Gamasutra about their recently 'blown cover'. The interview explores how this has affected their business working on 'stealth' game development for hundreds of titles (recently including Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime), in which the publisher takes the credit for the end product. They seem a little conflicted about it, to say the least, as Tose's Masa Agarida notes: 'Actually, I have tried to expose us more in the US than in Japan, but right now, everybody's getting to know us more than before. Right now I'm thinking of going back behind the scenes again.'"
This discussion has been archived.
No new comments can be posted.
The Biggest Game Dev You've Never Heard Of
|
Log in/Create an Account
| Top
| 85 comments
| Search Discussion
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
Best response ever
(Score:5, Funny)Game development ninjas?
(Score:5, Funny)I for one dig that.
Japanese vs American attitudes
(Score:2, Interesting)Re:Japanese vs American attitudes
(Score:5, Informative)(http://www.intelligentblogger.com/ | Last Journal: Wednesday October 18, @01:06AM)
Arguably, that's because they weren't getting any money for their work. If the devs were paid what they were worth, I can assure you that they wouldn't have complained as much.
What's funny is that Todd Frye (the creator of Atari Pacman for the 2600) got both money in the form of royalties [erasmatazz.com] AND fame for his work on PacMan! Even more amusing is that it was a rushed translation, and Mr. Frye didn't like PacMan! Some people have all the luck.
Go Figure.
Interesting but...
(Score:4, Insightful)Am I wrong here
(Score:5, Insightful)They don't design the house (architect), don't pay for it (home owner), but 9-5 mondays to fridays, look at the specs and build it.
Otherwise, all of their moves, like not insisting on retaining the IP, make no sense.
Re:Am I wrong here
(Score:4, Insightful)(http://gumbercules.net/)
Not sure about these guys...
(Score:3, Funny)Scary
(Score:4, Insightful)We try to act behind the scenes, and we follow our clients' desires, instructions and everything, so our policy is not to have a vision. In our company, we follow the customer's vision.
Programming for these guys must be loads of fun. Yikes.
Re:Scary
(Score:4, Interesting)Re:Scary
(Score:4, Interesting)To be fair, the first time I was a CS major in the early 90s, I didn't really see where the Internet wave was going to take us, myself. Sure, I'd been online since 1983, but somehow it never seemed real to me that I would truly be able to telecommute like this. When I went back to school in the late 90s, I had missed the crest of the wave, when many were able to get rich for doing almost nothing, but I now had the attainable goal in mind of finding a non-geographically-fixed job.
I recently re-watched James Burke's The Day the Universe Changed, made in 1985, and found it a little eerie how well he described my current working conditions in the first episode.
I know a bigger one...
(Score:2, Funny)(http://www.the-h.net/h)
He's actually the biggest game dev I know, but nobody's heard of him...
me too!
(Score:1)(http://www.empirereborn.net/ | Last Journal: Tuesday April 25, @06:44AM)
At least they have history
(Score:3, Funny)(http://www.zebeth.com/)
Could we get a look at their portfolio?
(Score:3, Funny)AH, that explains it!
(Score:5, Funny)(Last Journal: Sunday July 09, @10:31PM)
Credits
(Score:2, Interesting)I really think it can help a lot in making the team feel more like a unit and reduce work related stress.
Game development turtles:
(Score:3, Funny)(Last Journal: Sunday April 16, @10:28PM)
Which is best?
(Score:3, Funny)(http://www.familyreserve.com/)
Fresh and amusing excerpts from TFA...
(Score:3, Funny)(http://bitmason.com/)
GS: How come we've never heard of you until right now?
KS: Well we're based in Kyoto, right? So we're ninja. You can't find us!
KS: Our policy is not to have a vision.
KS: We just beg them.
GS: Seems like when you've made 1,100 games you shouldn't have to beg.
GS: What's your stock value?
SC: It's about 16 dollars now. We've had better days.
Re:but of course
(Score:1)Re:but of course
(Score:2)Then totally flip out and kill you.
Re:Mission accomprished
(Score:5, Funny)"ME SO SOLLY! AH SO!"
Dude, it's the twenty-first century. Can we try to show a LITTLE respect for foreign cultures?
Re:Mission accomprished
(Score:1)