Westone

Founded: 1986-05^[1]^[2]

Defunct: 2014-09-24^[2]

Headquarters:

This short article is in need of work. You can help Sega Retro by adding to it.

Westone Bit Entertainment (ウエストンビットエンタテインメント), founded as Escape, and later known as simply Westone, was a Japanese video game developer which often did uncredited contract work for publishers such as Sega and Hudson Soft. The company is most notable for developing a number of entries in the Wonder Boy series.

Company

The Tokyo-based developer was founded in May 1986 as Escape (referring to a computer keyboard's Esc key.) Because it was felt that name didn't reinforce the image of a reliable company, it was later changed to Westone, a contraction derived from the first characters of founders Ryuuichi Nishizawa (西澤龍一) and Michishito Ishizuka's (石塚路志人) names: Nishi, meaning West, and Ishi, meaning stone.^[2] It was created as an original equipment manufacturer for both arcades and home consoles.^[3]