The Game Designers Studio

The Game Designers Studio
Native name
 株式会社タイトソフト
Kabushiki gaisha Taitosofuto
Formerly
 The Game Designers Studio (1999-2005)
SQEX Corporation (2005-2006)
Shell corporation
Industry Video game
Genre Role-playing
Fate Re-branded as Taito Corporation and eventually dissolved into Square Enix.
Successor Taito
Founded June 22, 1999 (1999-06-22)
Founder Akitoshi Kawazu
Defunct March 11, 2010 (2010-03-11)
Headquarters Japan
Key people
 Yoichi Wada
Yasuo Nishigaki
Products Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles
Number of employees
 10
Parent Square (1999-2003)
Square Enix (2003-2010)

The Game Designers Studio, Inc. (株式会社ゲームデザイナーズ・スタジオ, kabushiki gaisha Geimudezainaazu Sutajio) was a shell corporation founded in June 1999 by Square. The brand’s final iteration was known as Taito Soft Corporation (株式会社タイトソフト, Kabushiki gaisha Taitosofuto), a 10-employee team designed for software development for consoles. The Game Designers Studio is associated with Taito Corporation for being the legal entity to assimilate Taito into the Square Enix group.

The Game Designers Studio was re-purposed in 2002 in order to exploit a loophole with the company's exclusivity deal to develop for Sony Computer Entertainment's PlayStation consoles.[1] To evade that deal, Square held only 49% of the entity's shares while Akitoshi Kawazu, head of Square's Product Development Division-2, held 51%. The formation of a new company also made it possible to take advantage of Nintendo’s Q fund for new game developers who develop for GameCube.

The Game Designers Studio only released a single game, Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles the de facto developed by Square Enix's Product Development Division-2 with development credit to The Game Designers Studio while publishing was done by Nintendo. Square was absorbed into Enix in 2003 and formed Square Enix while Crystal Chronicles was in development. Square Enix later acquired 100% of Game Designers Studio and renamed it to SQEX Corporation in 2005.

After the acquisition of Taito in 2005, Square Enix merged it into SQEX in March 2006. The merger was performed to allow Square Enix to make a Taito a wholly owned subsidiary. Despite the new subsidiary being called Taito Corporation, SQEX was the surviving company of the merger. [2]

On February 1, 2010, in order for Square Enix to consolidate all of its arcade businesses, Square Enix merged Taito Corporation into ES1 Corporation. As part of the merger, a corporate spin-off occurred in which the Taito Corporation assets formerly known as SQEX Corporation was renamed to Taito Soft Corporation while the remaining assets were branded as Taito Corporation. Taito Soft Corporation was absorbed into Square Enix on March 11, 2010, effectively ending the company that started out as The Game Designers Studio.[3][4]

References

  1. ↑ "IGN - Sony buys stake in Square". IGN.com. Archived from the original on 2013-12-28. Retrieved 2013-12-25.
  2. ↑ "SQUARE ENIX TO MAKE TAITO A WHOLLY-OWNED SUBSIDIARY" (PDF). Jp.square-enix.com. Archived (PDF) from the original on 29 March 2016. Retrieved 1 February 2018.
  3. ↑ "Notice of Absorption-Type Company Split Between Subsidiaries" (PDF). Hd.square-enix.com. Archived (PDF) from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 1 February 2018.
  4. ↑ "会社情報｜株式会社タイトー｜お問い合わせ窓口変更のお知らせ". Taito.co.jp. Archived from the original on 2 February 2018. Retrieved 1 February 2018.
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