Santos

For the later identically-named game developer, see Santos (later).

Santos

Founded: 1985-07

Defunct: 1991-12^[1]

Merged into: Sega (1991)

Headquarters:

Japan

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Santos Co., Ltd., formerly known as Whiteboard Co., Ltd., was a Japanese video game developer which specialized in mahjong games. Founded in 1985 and headed by Takeshi Tozu, Santos would later have much of its staff and business acquired in December 1991 by Sega (for the establishment of its new subsidiary Megasoft), with the company declaring bankruptcy that same month.

Takeshi Tozu would later establish another company by the same name, Santos.

Company

Founded in July 1985 as Whiteboard, the company primarily developed mahjong games for the arcades and home video game consoles, with the majority of their releases being manufactured or published by Sega. The company's name was officially changed to Santos in 1989, and it began producing various notable Sega Mega Drive games, like Battle Golfer Yui.

As Santos approached the end of the 1980s, the company found itself in dire financial straits, and its main publisher Sega decided to purchase much of the company in December 1991. Instead of fully acquiring Santos itself, Sega instead acquired the majority of the developer's staff and unfinished games, and used the resources to establish a separate company, Megasoft. Later that month, Santos filed for bankruptcy.

Company head Takeshi Tozu and much of the staff who did not transition to Megasoft soon founded a second company in 1992 by the same name, Santos. That same year, another group of former staff led by Tomohiro Ishigai would venture out and establish developer Gai Brain.