Genius Sonority (ジニアス・ソノリティ株式会社, Jiniasu Sonoriti Kabushiki Kaisha) is a Japanese video game development studio, whose staff consists of programmers who have previously worked on the Dragon Quest series of video games.
 | |
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Video games |
| Founded | June 2002[1] |
| Headquarters | Nihonbashi, Chūō, Tokyo, Japan[1] |
Key people | Manabu Yamana (president, CEO)[1] |
| Products | Games for Nintendo video game consoles |
Number of employees | 22[2] |
| Website | Genius Sonority |
History
editGenius Sonority was incorporated in June 2002 for the original purpose of developing Pokémon games for home consoles, with funding provided by Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi’s Q Fund, a cash reserve used for Nintendo game company start-ups.[3] Current shareholders of the company include Yamana Satoru, Nintendo, and The Pokémon Company.[1] The company's founder and current president, Manabu Yamana, is best known as a key person at Heartbeat, a company that developed games in the Dragon Quest series for Enix.[4] Yamana was joined in his efforts by members of Creatures Inc., the second-party Nintendo affiliate, which jointly owns the Pokémon Company and IP along with Nintendo and Game Freak.[4]
As well as developing various Pokémon-related titles, they also co-developed Dragon Quest Swords: The Masked Queen and the Tower of Mirrors for the Wii with Eighting.[5] The game was released in Japan in July 2007, and the rest of the world within ten months.
Genius Sonority's current flagship franchise is The Denpa Men, an RPG franchise revolving around forming a party by catching creatures known as "Denpa Men", who are randomly generated based on nearby Wi-Fi signals. The first game in the franchise, The Denpa Men: They Came By Wave, was released on Nintendo 3DS in 2012, and several games followed, including a mobile title and an entry for Nintendo Switch.
Titles
edit| Year | Title | Platform | Publisher | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2003 | Pokémon Colosseum | GameCube | Nintendo/The Pokémon Company | |
| 2005 | Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness | GameCube | ||
| 2006 | Pokémon Trozei! | |||
| Pokémon Battle Revolution | ||||
| 2007 | Dragon Quest Swords: The Masked Queen and the Tower of Mirrors | Square Enix | Co-developed with Eighting | |
| 100 Classic Book Collection | Nintendo | |||
| 2008 | Disney Fairies: Tinker Bell | Disney Interactive | ||
| 2010 | Otona no Renai Shōsetsu: Harlequin Selection [6] | Nintendo | ||
| 2011 | Learn with Pokémon: Typing Adventure | Nintendo/The Pokémon Company | ||
| 2012 | The Denpa Men: They Came By Wave | Nintendo 3DS | Genius Sonority | |
| The Denpa Men 2: Beyond the Waves | Nintendo 3DS | |||
| 2013 | The Denpa Men 3: The Rise of Digitoll | Nintendo 3DS | ||
| 2014 | Pokémon Battle Trozei | The Pokémon Company | ||
| The Denpa Men RPG Free! | Nintendo 3DS | Genius Sonority | ||
| 2015 | Pokémon Shuffle | Nintendo/The Pokémon Company | ||
| 2017 | The New Denpa Men | Genius Sonority | ||
| 2020 | Pokémon Café ReMix[7] | Nintendo/The Pokémon Company | ||
| 2024 | The New Denpa Men RPG Free! | Genius Sonority |
References
edit- ^ a b c d "会社紹介 (About Us)". GeniusSonority.jp (in Japanese). April 1, 2008. Archived from the original on 2009-03-10. Retrieved 2009-07-27.
- ^ "ジニアス・ソノリティ". Archived from the original on 2009-03-10. Retrieved 2020-02-23.
- ^ "Yamauchi Q Fund sees Dragon Quest start-up". Spong.com. 2002-08-08. Retrieved 2009-07-27.
- ^ a b Long, Andrew (2002-08-07). "Nintendo Lures RPG Talent". RPGamer.com. Archived from the original on 2002-08-13. Retrieved 2009-07-27.
- ^ Gantayat, Anoop (2007-01-23). "Dragon Quest Swords Update". IGN. Retrieved 2016-04-01.
- ^ Nintendo.co.jp
- ^ "Pokémon Café Mix for Nintendo Switch - Nintendo Game Details". Nintendo. Retrieved 17 June 2020.
External links
edit- Official website (in Japanese)