Tose (company)

Tose Co., Ltd.[lower-alpha 1] (TYO: 4728) (also called Tose Software) is a Japanese video game development company based in Kyoto. It is mostly known for developing Nintendo's Game & Watch Gallery series, various Dragon Ball games, as well as other Nintendo products. Tose has developed or co-developed over 1,000 games since the company's inception in 1979, but is virtually never credited in the games themselves (an exception to this is Scarlet Nexus with Namco, Game & Watch Gallery 4 and The Legendary Starfy series, as Tose shares the copyright with Nintendo).[2] Tose maintains a policy of having no creative input into the work they do, going so far as to refuse to put their names in the credits for most of the games they work on. As such, Tose has gained a reputation for being a "ghost developer".[3]

Tose Co., Ltd.
Native name
株式会社トーセ
TypeKabushiki kaisha (public)
TYO: 4728
IndustryVideo games
FoundedNovember 1979 (1979-11)
Headquarters
Kyoto
,
Japan
Key people
  • Shigeru Saito
    (Chairman and CEO)
  • Yasuhito Watanabe
    (President and COO)
ProductsThe Legendary Starfy series
Game & Watch Gallery series
Number of employees
630 (2022)[1]
Websitehttps://www.tose.co.jp/en

History

Tose was established in November 1979 in Higashiyama-ku, Kyoto, as an independent entity from Toa Seiko Co. Ltd. It moved its head office to Otokuni-gun, Kyoto Prefecture in May 1986. In July 1988, Tose moved its head office to Yamazaki, Kyoto. In May 1990, Tose began developing software for the Game Boy and the Super Famicom.

In August 1999, Tose was listed on the Osaka Securities Exchange 2nd Section and the Kyoto Stock Exchange. In October of that year, Tose's Kyoto Head office was opened at Shijo-Karasuma, which integrated its head office functions with the Karasuma CG Center. On 27 September 2000, Tose was listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange 2nd Section.[4] In August 2001, it was listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange 1st Section and Osaka Securities Exchange 1st Section.

On 18 December 2007, Tose announced the leakage of its business information onto the Internet, which was discovered the day before. The leak included 10 pieces of information relating to customer names, development cases, development contents, development fees, and reception time.[5]

On September 1, 2011, Tose announced the separation of its amusement machine development business from its second game development department (ゲーム事業部開発２部) into a separate amusement machine developer (AM開発部).[6]

List of games developed by Tose

NOTE: Some of these titles are merely believed or assumed to be developed by Tose, due to information compiled by various amateur and professional journalists. Most have not been officially confirmed as Tose-developed products by any of the games' publishers, co-developers, nor Tose itself. Many of the games released by Bandai, Tomy Corporation, Jaleco, Taito, Namco, Tonkin House were developed by Tose.

See also Category:Tose (company) games

Arcade

Family Computer/Nintendo Entertainment System

Famicom Disk System

Super Famicom/Super NES

Game Boy

Game Boy Color

Game Boy Advance

Virtual Boy

PlayStation

PlayStation 2

GameCube

PlayStation 3

PlayStation 4

PlayStation 5

PlayStation Portable

PlayStation Vita

Nintendo DS

Nintendo 3DS

Wii U

Nintendo Switch

Dreamcast

PC
  • GONG! Online (2007)

Android, iOS
  • Fight League (2017)[16]
  • Nijigasaki High School Idol Club TOKIMEKI RunRuns (2022)[17]

Games ported by Tose

Tose has ported a few games, including Square and Enix games for the Nintendo Entertainment System and Super NES.

Notes
  1. Japanese: 株式会社トーセ, Hepburn: Kabushiki-gaisha Tōse

References
  1. "Company profile" (PDF). Tose Co., Ltd. February 28, 2023. Retrieved 23 April 2023.
  2. Sheffield, Brandon (2006-05-18). "Tose: Game Development Ninjas". Game Developer. Retrieved 2023-10-18.
  3. Cifaldi, Frank (2006-04-20). "The Connection is Made: Developer Highlights from Game Connection 2006 (Part Two)". Game Developer. Retrieved 2023-10-18.
  4. "TOSE Software-Japan-". 2007-10-27. Archived from the original on 2007-10-27. Retrieved 2023-04-19.
  5. 業務情報の漏洩に関するお知らせ
  6. "Archived copy" (PDF). 2011-10-30. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-10-30. Retrieved 2023-04-19.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  7. Kennedy, Sam (2007-01-24). "Tose: Gaming's Dirty Little Secret". 1UP.com. Retrieved 2009-05-22.
  8. "TOSE Software-Japan-". 2007-10-26. Archived from the original on 2007-10-26. Retrieved 2023-04-19.
  9. Rose, Mike (May 1, 2013). "What the heck is Bullfrog's Theme Aquarium?". Gamasutra. UBM Technology Group. Retrieved January 7, 2019.
  10. "Aquarium (1998) PlayStation release dates". MobyGames. Blue Flame Labs. Retrieved 7 January 2019.
  11. Hill, Doug (October 14, 1999). "Tose to develop for Playstation 2". RPGamer.com. Archived from the original on 2012-09-30. Retrieved 2009-08-16.
  12. Caoili, Eric (December 29, 2010). "Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers' Fan-Translation Trailer". GameSetWatch. Retrieved 2015-05-13.
  13. Seedhouse, Alex (May 25, 2019). "Star Ocean: First Departure R Announced For Nintendo Switch". Nintendo Insider. Retrieved September 12, 2019.
  14. "Supported the development of "Splatoon2" for Nintendo Switch (TM). | News | TOSE CO., LTD". www.tose.co.jp. Retrieved 2022-08-13.
  15. "3rd Quarter of Fiscal Year Ending August 31, 2023" (PDF). Tose Co, Ltd.
  16. "Supported the development of smartphone app, "Fight League（TM）". | News | TOSE CO., LTD". www.tose.co.jp. Retrieved 2022-08-13.
  17. "TOSE group developed "Nijigasaki High School idol club TOKIMEKI RunRuns", one of LOVE LIVE! series. | News | TOSE CO., LTD". www.tose.co.jp. Retrieved 2022-08-13.
  18. "Nintendo Power Holiday 2008". Nintendo Power. Vol. 236. 2008. p. 82.
  19. Zelda Breath Of The Wild Playthrough - Credits, retrieved 2022-12-13
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