Treasure (company)

Treasure founder and president Masato Maegawa dreamed of working in the video game industry when he was young and began learning computer programming in junior high school. He studied programming in college and was hired by developer and publisher Konami after graduating.[1] At Konami, Maegawa and associates that would later establish Treasure worked on a variety of games including arcade titles The Simpsons (1991) and Bucky O'Hare (1992), and Super NES games Super Castlevania IV (1991), Contra III: The Alien Wars (1992), and Axelay (1992).[2][3] In 1991, Maegawa and several other Konami employees began planning an original game that would become Gunstar Heroes (1993),[4][5] but their concept was rejected by Konami.[2] Maegawa and his team were growing frustrated with Konami's growing reliance on sequels to established franchises such as their Castlevania and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series.[2] The team felt consumers wanted original games,[2] and so they left Konami in 1992 to establish Treasure and continue development on Gunstar Heroes.[1]

In their first years, Treasure developed games for the Sega Genesis.

Treasure was founded on June 19, 1992;[6] the company name came from wanting to be a "treasure" to the industry.[2] Around the time of founding, the company had just over ten people.[7] Even though most of the staff made games for the Super NES at Konami, they wanted to develop Gunstar Heroes for the Sega Genesis because the system's Motorola 68000 microprocessor was necessary for the visuals and gameplay they were striving for.[2] Treasure approached Sega for a publishing contract.[4] At first, they were not granted approval because they lacked a track record, but Sega instead contracted them to develop McDonald's Treasure Land Adventure (1993).[5] Several months into development, they were granted approval to work on Gunstar Heroes.[5] Treasure staff was split into two teams to work on both games in parallel.[2][5] They had a staff of around 18 people at the time, most being ex-Konami programmers.[2] The staff felt they had more freedom working under Sega than Konami.[2]

McDonald's Treasure Land Adventure was completed first, but Treasure decided to finish and release Gunstar Heroes first because they wanted their debut to be an original game.[5] North American magazine GameFan were enthralled with the game and secured the first English language interview with Treasure that year.[8] McDonald's Treasure Land Adventure was released next, initiating a trend for Treasure of developing games based on licensed properties. As a small studio, Treasure required the revenue from licensed games to develop original projects.[8] Treasure continued to develop games for the Genesis for the remainder of the 16-bit era because of the system's smooth sprite movement, and grew a following among Sega fans.[8][9] After Gunstar Heroes, Treasure was divided into four teams to develop (in order of release): platformer Dynamite Headdy (1994), fighting game Yu Yu Hakusho Makyō Tōitsusen (1994), run and gun Alien Soldier (1995), and action-adventure Light Crusader (1995).[5] The variety among these games illustrated unevenness and unpredictability in Treasure's output that would become characteristic of them.[8]

In 1994, Sega introduced the Sega Saturn technology to Treasure. Treasure were impressed with the system's ability to handle a large number of sprites. They also knew their fan base consisted entirely of Sega gamers, so as the 32-bit era began, they moved development to the Saturn.[9] Even though the Saturn was capable of 3D graphics, they continued to develop 2D games because they had built up 2D sprite know how. They were not concerned with competing with 3D games.[9] First on Saturn was Guardian Heroes (1996), a beat 'em up that combines elements from fighting games and RPGs.[8] Treasure worked on their next two releases concurrently, side-scrolling platformers Mischief Makers (1997) and Silhouette Mirage (1997).[8] Mischief Makers was released on the Nintendo 64 and published by Enix, Treasure's first game published by a company other than Sega and released on non-Sega hardware.[8] Treasure chose to develop for the Nintendo 64 because they were interested in the hardware's capabilities.[3] Enix had heard of Treasure's reputation for action games and requested to publish for them in the past, but it was not until Treasure was developing for a non-Sega platform that they sought Enix's cooperation.[3] Mischief Makers was followed by Silhouette Mirage, which was initially released on the Saturn then ported to the PlayStation in 1998.[8]

Treasure's headquarters in Nakano, Tokyo from the late 1990s[lower-alpha 2] to early 2010s[lower-alpha 3] (photo taken in 2019)

In 1998, Treasure released their first arcade game, the shoot 'em up Radiant Silvergun. Treasure had been hesitant to develop an arcade game for years because of concerns with their commercial viability, but the staff felt Radiant Silvergun had potential and they were eager to develop it.[14] The game was ported to the Saturn later that year.[8] Enix published Treasure's next game for the PlayStation, fighting game Rakugaki Showtime (1999), but had to pull it from shelves shortly after release because of a lawsuit filed against them.[8][11] This was followed by the multidirectional shooter Bangai-O (1999) which received a limited release on the Nintendo 64, but was later modified and re-released for the Dreamcast.[8] By 1999, most of the founding Treasure staff were still with the company.[15]

Treasure began the 2000s with some early troubles.[8] Gun Beat, a racing game they were developing for Sega's NAOMI arcade platform, was canceled with little explanation.[16] Also, Silpheed: The Lost Planet (2000) and Stretch Panic (2001) for the PlayStation 2 were both critically panned.[8][11] Despite these hiccups, Treasure did find success with Sin and Punishment (2000),[8] a rail shooter co-developed with Nintendo for the Nintendo 64 and later released on the iQue in China.[17] The game was not released in western territories but grew a cult following among import gamers.[18] While Sin and Punishment was still in development, Treasure started development on a spiritual sequel to Radiant Silvergun titled Ikaruga (2001).[19] The arcade shooter was co-developed with G.rev,[11] and ported to the Dreamcast and saw a worldwide release on the GameCube.[8]

Treasure next embarked on a series of licensed projects.[8] Two of these were based on the Tiny Toon Adventures franchise, Tiny Toon Adventures: Buster's Bad Dream (2002) for the Game Boy Advance and the unreleased Tiny Toon Adventures: Defenders of the Universe for the PlayStation 2.[8] Other licensed games during this period included Game Boy Advance games Hajime no Ippo: The Fighting! (2003) and Astro Boy: Omega Factor (2003), as well as GameCube games Wario World (2003) and Dragon Drive: D-Masters Shot (2003).[8] Astro Boy: Omega Factor was co-developed with Hitmaker[20] and was critically praised for returning to Treasure's classic side-scrolling action style that had been missing from their recent output.[8][11] Their next game was Gradius V (2004) which like Ikaruga before it, was co-developed with G.rev.[11] The companies worked under contract for Konami, and the game helped cement Treasure's return to critical successes following a slew of mediocre licensed games.[8]

Treasure developed sequels on the Game Boy Advance for their earlier successes, Advance Guardian Heroes (2004) and Gunstar Super Heroes (2005).[8] Treasure followed this with a series of licensed Bleach games for the Nintendo DS.[11] Maegawa explained that his company experiences challenges in developing games based on licensed properties like Bleach, saying that the staff wants to be original but cannot detract too far from the source material and risk disappointing fans.[21] By 2009, the company had 20-30 employees.[21]

The number of employees at Treasure had dropped to 16 by 2011,[11] and to less than 10 by 2022.[22] In a 2011 interview, Maegawa explained that Treasure now uses middleware to develop games, no longer using custom programming to push the hardware to their maximum levels.[11] The company was also putting an increased focus on rereleasing their back catalog as downloadable games on the Virtual Console, PlayStation Network, and Xbox Live.[11] Treasure has not released any new games since 2014 apart from re-releases of games like Ikaruga.[23] On June 19, 2022, its 30th anniversary, Treasure announced it was working on a "highly requested" game.[22]

• Gun Beat (Arcade, cancelled 2000)
• Tiny Toon Adventures: Defenders of the Universe (GameCube & PlayStation 2, cancelled 2002)