Q&A: What Happened to these Publishers?

[backguard]

If you have a question about a publisher that somehow disappeared, post it here. Maybe someone can tell you what happened to them (bought by EA? bankrupted? something else?).

I for one am wondering about Data East. Why no Ikari Warriors IV?

[Arcade Antics]

Data East went bankrupt in 03. Their IP was picked up between a few buyers IIRC.

[Tron 2.0]

Data East went bankrupt in 03. Their IP was picked up between a few buyers IIRC.
Yup dataeast IP were bought up by G-MODE.Though it's a shame they just use there games for cell phones.

[Cobra Commander]

Cosmi Corp?
Cosmi/Curb maybe? Haven't heard of those guys in decades.

[A Black Falcon]

Also, Ikari Warriors is an SNK game, not Data East. Data East just made a couple of the (many) ports. SNK moved on to Metal Slug instead, pretty much... though the two main Ikari Warriors are in the King of Fighters games from the beginning, along with a few new Ikari team characters, and they are also playable in Metal Slugs 6 and 7. :)

There also evidently was a 'Original Ikari Warriors with Leona as the playable character instead' game for cellphones done recently, as well... Japan only of course though.

[Tron 2.0]

If you have a question about a publisher that somehow disappeared, post it here.
Why no Ikari Warriors IV?
Why not another ikari warrios who knows that is up to snk-playmore.These days,they rather put out another metal slug or kof befor doing another ikari warriors.

[Baloo]

Whatever happened to Sofel?

[Sonicwolf]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Defunct_video_game_companies

That list may yield some information.

[Steve W]

Cosmi Corp?
Cosmi/Curb maybe? Haven't heard of those guys in decades.
Cosmi is still around. They pretty much stick to budget PC software now. They tend to put out generic utility software and don't really create games. They do license and repackage other publisher's games as a kind of discount label.

http://www.cosmi.com/

[PingvinBlueJeans]

Why not another ikari warrios who knows that is up to snk-playmore.These days,they rather put out another metal slug or kof befor doing another ikari warriors.
SNK pretty much pretends the pre-Neo Geo games don't exist.

[Giant]

WTH happenned to Quintet? even wikipedia is confused. link (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quintet_(game_developer)). I've been playing through soul blazer wishing it had current gen descendents.

[Cryomancer]

This is probably more developer, but what happened to Telenet Japan? Who owns Valis? Who owns Cosmic Fantasy Stories? I assume Namco.

[Nikademus1969]

Cosmi Corp?
Cosmi/Curb maybe? Haven't heard of those guys in decades.

AFAIK, Cosmi's thing these days is making budget PC programs, like the "1001 Bible Fonts" or whatever you'd likely find in the $10 software rack at places like Walmart.

[icarwngs55]

Well I know what happened to them (went out of business in 2000), but mine is...

Whoopee Camp....I NEED ANOTHER TOMBA! DAMMIT

Mike

[Ed Oscuro]

Cosmi Corp?
Cosmi/Curb maybe? Haven't heard of those guys in decades.
Cosmi as in "Guide to the Galaxy" and The Umbra Conspiracy (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEnPHU0TAK4)?

The Galaxy disc is from somewhere around '95 or '96. So that's only like ONE decade.

[j_factor]

This is probably more developer, but what happened to Telenet Japan? Who owns Valis? Who owns Cosmic Fantasy Stories? I assume Namco.

Namco bought Wolf Team (a developer within Telenet), but not Telenet. I don't think they own any Telenet IP's, including the games Wolf Team originally made, such as El Viento. When Telenet sold off Wolf Team, which was basically half the company, they also laid off a bunch of people. Their US division, Renovation, was sold to Sega. Telenet still existed, but laid very low. They actually developed Swingerz Golf for Gamecube. Then they "revived" the Valis series with a hentai game for cell phones, and went out of business shortly thereafter. That was like last year or the year before.

I don't know who, if anyone, purchased Telenet's IP when they went bankrupt. I'd imagine Sega technically owns US publishing rights to games like El Viento.

[Haoie]

Psygnosis got bought by Sony right?

Man I'm aching for another Colony Wars game.

[Sonicwolf]

Psygnosis got bought by Sony right?

Man I'm aching for another Colony Wars game.

Yeah, I think Psygnosis was formed into Sony Computer Entertainment Liverpool or something to that effect.

[j_factor]

Psygnosis got bought by Sony right?

Man I'm aching for another Colony Wars game.

Psygnosis got bought by Sony way back in 1993, but it was maintained as an independent company. Sony fully took over and shut them down in 2000. It's a damn shame; I loved Psygnosis. The main Psygnosis studio became SCE Studio Liverpool, still developing the WipEout series. I believe their team in Chester was shut down, and their other two studios in England were merged into SCE London Studio. Their offices in California, Germany, and France were all closed.

Psygnosis really put out a lot of games. And they were great about giving publishing deals to small independent developers.

[CRV]

Whatever happened to Sofel?

SOFEL (http://www.sofel.co.jp/) is still very much around, involved with RFID stuff.

[Kitsune Sniper]

Cosmi Corp?
Cosmi/Curb maybe? Haven't heard of those guys in decades.

I find budget PC game compilations by them all the time. I had no idea they made software other than that, but I've stumbled upon early PC stuff by them. o_O

(Edited to remove a misread reply. Sorry.)


This is probably more developer, but what happened to Telenet Japan? Who owns Valis? Who owns Cosmic Fantasy Stories? I assume Namco.

Valis... ugh. Valis X (Valis Cross) was the final game in the series. And guess what? It included nudity and tentacle sex. What a way to kill the series. That seems to have been Telenet's final published game.

[Kid Fenris]

Valis... ugh. Valis X (Valis Cross) was the final game in the series. And guess what? It included nudity and tentacle sex. What a way to kill the series. That seems to have been Telenet's final published game.

I think the last Valis game was actually the second Valis cell-phone title, though I'm not sure if that was directly handled by Telenet. Valis X was published by Eants, but Telenet's copyright showed up on it.

Then someone made a Valis manga and unwholesome Valis toys (http://www.ncsx.com/2008/090108/fantasm_soldier_v1.htm), so the rights to the series are still active.

[Kitsune Sniper]

Those "unwholesome" Valis toys look pretty damn tame compared to some other official toys from other companies... D:

[Tron 2.0]

SNK pretty much pretends the pre-Neo Geo games don't exist.
I know what ya mean even though snkp owns the ips there not the same snk any more ;)

[NayusDante]

I've often wondered about Mindscape. Only game I know offhand that they published was Commander Blood, developed by Cryo. Come to think of it, I don't know what happened to Cryo either. Also on the subject of French companies, what happened to Adeline (Little Big Adventure)?

[A Black Falcon]

You know, all you need to do for some of these is check Wikipedia...

[j_factor]

I've often wondered about Mindscape. Only game I know offhand that they published was Commander Blood, developed by Cryo. Come to think of it, I don't know what happened to Cryo either. Also on the subject of French companies, what happened to Adeline (Little Big Adventure)?

Adeline became No Cliché, the developer of Toy Commander. They were developing an original survival horror game for Dreamcast called Agartha. Supposedly, the killing of Dreamcast killed Agartha, and resultingly, No Cliché as well.

Cryo went bankrupt and their main team was acquired by Dreamcatcher. Their IP is now owned by Microids. Mindscape (which was pretty big in the early to mid 90s) still exists, publishing edutainment and shovelware. But they're Mindscape in name only, similar to Atari. The real Mindscape died years ago.

[tom]

Mindscape The Halley's Project, hell of an excellent game.
Further, Balance of Power, and Infiltrator were also good.
The Miracle Piano is also a nice collectable, if found complete.

[Kitsune Sniper]

I've often wondered about Mindscape. Only game I know offhand that they published was Commander Blood, developed by Cryo. Come to think of it, I don't know what happened to Cryo either. Also on the subject of French companies, what happened to Adeline (Little Big Adventure)?

Mindscape appears to continue publishing games in Europe. -- http://portail.mindscape.co.uk/

Cryo filed for bankruptcy in 2002 after Dune flopped. Some of the company was bought out by Dreamcatcher Interactive, which kept publishing their games in America. The company's IP was bought out by MC2-Microids last October. -- Source (http://www.mobygames.com/company/cryo-interactive-entertainment)

Adeline was bought by Sega in 1997. They changed their name to "No Cliche" in 1998, and the company no longer exists. -- Source (http://www.mobygames.com/company/adeline-software-international)

[Scott45]

Was Origin on the list?

I'd love to see another Crusader game

ie Crusader: No Remorse
Crusader: No Regret


I still have both, but need to get DOS box or something else to play them.

[NayusDante]

The guy who did the music for Crusader is in a synthpop band (http://irismusic.com/) now, one of my personal favorites.

[MachineGex]

I always wondered what happened to Taito and Irem. Seems Square now owns Taito, not sure about Irem. Taito has some great 8-bit titles, but they dont get as much love as Konami or Capcom. I would love to see some Taito games remade.

[Cryomancer]

regarding the Valis porn game, I was aware of it, but it's developed by someone else. I was mostly curious as to who owns it now, since there hasn't been any solid info since then. I'm holding out hope for some sort of comback of Valis / Cosmic Fantasy Stories someday.

[j_factor]

Was Origin on the list?

EA, who owned them, killed them.


I always wondered what happened to Taito and Irem. Seems Square now owns Taito, not sure about Irem. Taito has some great 8-bit titles, but they dont get as much love as Konami or Capcom. I would love to see some Taito games remade.

Irem is very much still around, they just don't put out games that fast. Their most recent release in Japan was a third game in the Disaster Report / Raw Danger series, for PSP. Hopefully it gets a translation someday. They're currently developing a sequel to Steambot Chronicles.

[Angry SNES NErd]

It's a shame about Data East. Most of their titles did not stand out very well, but others were very enjoyable (Shadowrun for SNES comes to mind)

[Angry SNES NErd]

Origin was bought by EA before Age of Shadows (Ultima Online) was even released.

EA has done some very questionable things with the rights to UO since that point.

[GarrettCRW]

It's a shame about Data East. Most of their titles did not stand out very well, but others were very enjoyable (Shadowrun for SNES comes to mind)

Wasn't Shadowrun developed by Beam Software?

[j_factor]

Wasn't Shadowrun developed by Beam Software?

Correct, Data East just published it.