Megasoft

From Sega Retro

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Megasoft
Founded: 1991-12
Defunct: 1992-11 (ceased development), 1996 (dissolved)
Headquarters:
4th Floor, 7-chōme-9-15 Ueno, Taito City, Tokyo 110-0005, Japan

Megasoft Co., Ltd. (株式会社メガソフト) was a Japanese video game development subsidiary of Sega of Japan, formed from the December 1991 acquisition of developer Santos' staff and game projects. Actively developing for only one year under the presidency of Sega producer Tokinori Kaneyasu, its workforce were ultimately merged into other Sega research and development divisions, with their four titles all releasing thereafter in 1993 and the company formally dissolved in 1996.

Company

Japanese video game developer Santos shared a close relationship with Sega, with the latter company often manufacturing or publishing its games. As Santos began experiencing financial troubles around the dawn of the 1990s, Sega acquired the majority of the company's employees and its games in December 1991, establishing an entirely new company with much of the same staff and development projects named Megasoft.[1]

Despite the majority of its workforce carrying over, Santos' president Takeshi Tozu and a proportion of staff chose to not become a part of Megasoft; in the wake of this, then-current Sega amusement R&D producer Tokinori Kaneyasu was recruited as a replacement.[2] Following the original company's bankruptcy, Tozu and much of the aforementioned staff went on to create a new Santos in 1992, with the remaining outliers also forming Gai Brain during the same year.[3]

Megasoft only worked on the production of four games (the most notable being Shinobi III: Return of the Ninja Master), before the subsidiary was largely dissolved and merged into Sega proper in November 1992.[5] Many of Megasoft's games were released after the company's game development capabilities had ceased to exist. While Megasoft was largely merged into Sega, the subsidiary continued to exist in some form until 1996, when it was officially liquidated.[6][7]

While active, the company's Ueno headquarters were notably located in the same tower block as Treasure's.[8][9][6]

Softography

External links

References


Timeline of Sega of Japan research and development divisions








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