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The Biggest Game Dev You've Never Heard Of

Posted by Zonk on Fri May 19, 2006 12:33 PM
from the busy-little-ninjas dept.
Businesses Entertainment Games
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."
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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.'"
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The Biggest Game Dev You've Never Heard Of 25 Comments More /

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  • Best response ever (Score:5, Funny)

    by flooey (695860) on Friday May 19 2006, @12:37PM (#15366416)
    From the article:
    GS: So how do you teach publishers that outsourcing is potentially beneficial? It seems like a lot of companies really want to keep things in-house.

    KS: We just beg them.

    • Re:Best response ever (Score:3, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      KS: We just beg them.

      Prease, prease, we velly good deveroper.

    • It sounds like a funny answer, but really it isn't that unusual.

      It's surprising how much is available when you just ask the right way.

      Being at the right place at the right time and simply asking "can I help out" can really get you places.

  • Game development ninjas? (Score:5, Funny)

    by GroeFaZ (850443) on Friday May 19 2006, @12:40PM (#15366447)
    Like, they can TOTALLY FLIP OUT and WRITE GAMES?

    I for one dig that.

  • Japanese vs American attitudes (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    It's interesting to see the difference between Japanese and American attitudes here. Whereas Activision was founded primarily so that individual devs could get credit for their games, the biggest game development company, which is Japanese, doesn't even put it's name on games.
    • Activision was founded primarily so that individual devs could get credit for their games

      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)

    by GundamFan (848341) on Friday May 19 2006, @12:42PM (#15366464)
    This isn't that surprising, large cooperations contract smaller companies to do work under there name all the time. That said, I do find these kind of "How stuff gets made" and "Who makes that?" articles fascinating, thanks for the link.

  • Am I wrong here (Score:5, Insightful)

    by rolfwind (528248) on Friday May 19 2006, @12:45PM (#15366505)
    But from the interview, it sounds more like they act as subcontractors than actual game developers.

    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)

      by chrismcdirty (677039) on Friday May 19 2006, @01:16PM (#15366800) Homepage
      But would you say that the subcontractors didn't build the house because they weren't involved in the design or purchase? They're still developing the game, but they're given a set of requirements and develop the game according to those requirements. It seems like what every other software developer does.

  • Not sure about these guys... (Score:3, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 19 2006, @12:46PM (#15366517)
    Do we really want somebody with this kind of power [realultimatepower.net] making our games?

  • Scary (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Perseid (660451) on Friday May 19 2006, @12:46PM (#15366519)
    From the article:
    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.
    • You see, that's the thing. They program for you! ; )
    • Maybe it's better to have no vision than a completely distorted one? Not that I speak from experience or anything...
    • At the beginning of the first programming class I took in college, the professor asked "Who wants to spend the rest of their life in a cubicle?"

      I started to laugh.

      More than half the class raised their hand.

      They would probably love this place. I switched to pscyhology.

      • Re:Scary (Score:4, Interesting)

        by hal2814 (725639) on Friday May 19 2006, @01:58PM (#15367228)
        It's all a matter of perspective. I used to work construction and I can tell you that I'd much rather spend my day in a cubicle than framing houses or pouring concrete. Fortunately, I have an office now but there are far worse fates than getting a cubicle for a workspace.

      • Re:Scary (Score:4, Interesting)

        by LooseIsNotLose (917231) on Friday May 19 2006, @02:59PM (#15367781)
        Not a very forward thinking professor, then. I am a programmer by trade, and my Oracle cubicle is about to be given away because I'm never there. With my (company) laptop, I can do my job anywhere--at home in my PJs, in the local coffee shop, or while visiting relatives in Alaska. How many jobs give you this level of freedom for a decent wage and benefits?

        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.

  • Back in college there was this really TALL and FAT guy, I mean he was BIG!

    He's actually the biggest game dev I know, but nobody's heard of him...
  • As they said in the interview, they have a good portfolio. It'd be kinda nice to see WHAT is in their portfolio though. For all I know, they're the ones behind all those godawful Mary Kate & Ashley games, or Barbie Horse Adventure or some such. Might explain why they don't put their names on games :P

  • Could we get a look at their portfolio? (Score:3, Funny)

    by Opportunist (166417) on Friday May 19 2006, @12:58PM (#15366628)
    I mean, I know a few games that would make me understand why someone refuses to put his name on the "I did it" list...
  • It makes sense now... Game Dev. Ninjas are at war with Software Pirates, YARRRRRRRR!!!

  • Game development turtles: (Score:3, Funny)

    by wideBlueSkies (618979) * on Friday May 19 2006, @01:52PM (#15367175) Journal
    In a related story, the biggest game we've never played is described here [3drealms.com].

  • Which is best? (Score:3, Funny)

    by Phat_Tony (661117) on Friday May 19 2006, @06:25PM (#15369370) Homepage
    So who would win, Game Developer Ninjas, Game Developer Pirates, Game Developer Robots, or Game Developer Monkeys?

  • Fresh and amusing excerpts from TFA... (Score:3, Funny)

    by dstone (191334) on Friday May 19 2006, @10:37PM (#15370389) Homepage
    That's a pretty funny, blunt interview. A few snippets, for those too lazy to RTF...

    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.

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