Entertainment Software Publishing

ESP was established to publish games by smaller developers for consoles such as the Sega Saturn (pictured above).

In the late 1990s in Japan, several Japanese video game developers, including Treasure, Quintet, Sting Entertainment, and Game Arts, joined forces and established the Game Developers Network (GD-NET). The purpose of the GD-NET was to establish working relationships with one another and collaborate on various projects.[1] As the video game market in Japan began growing in size, the costs for developers to produce games for consoles was also rising.[1] Members of the GD-NET did not have the same financial backing like larger companies did, and believed that creating healthy relationships between them would increase their chances of surviving the current industry landscape.[2] Companies under the network proposed a plan that would allow them to focus their resources on game development instead of production and promotion of their titles.[1][3]

GD-Net established Entertainment Software Publishing (ESP) in November 1997.[4] The company was headed by Youichi Miyaji, the president and CEO of Game Arts.[5] ESP was funded by many game studios, including Japan Art Media, CSK Research Institute, and Onion Soft, as well as most of the companies that were part of GD-NET.[6][7] Developers such as Treasure and Game Arts would create and produce games, while ESP would handle marketing, sales, and promotion of these games.[4][5] GD-NET developers believed that ESP would help make production of games easier and much more efficient than before, and not having to rely solely on companies like Sega to publish them.[4]

One of ESP's first hits was Grandia for the PlayStation and Sega Saturn. Developed by Game Arts, Grandia was released in 1997 to critical acclaim,[8] being listed as one of the greatest role-playing video games of all time. It became the first third-party Sega Saturn game to sell over 500,000 copies, and become a best-seller for the console. Treasure's Saturn conversion of the arcade game Radiant Silvergun was also released to acclaim for its gameplay and mechanics,[9] and is cited among the best and most influential shoot'em up games created.[10][11][12] Slayers Royal and its follow-up Slayers Royal 2, both based on the Slayers light novel and anime series, were also commercially successful.[13]

In 1998, Sega discontinued production of the Sega Saturn in Europe and North America amidst poor sales and a catastrophic marketing campaign.[14] While the Saturn was still being sold in Japan, Sega largely abandoned the system in favor of the Dreamcast, which it released the same year.[15] As such, ESP began to shift its publishing operations from Saturn to Dreamcast and other consoles like the Nintendo 64. It published Bangai-O for the latter console in 1999, which while critically successful was produced in limited quantities out of concern over its niche appeal.[16][17] ESP commonly participated in the Tokyo Game Show and other major video game events in the country, where they regularly presented their more popular titles such as Silhouette Mirage.[18] By this time, many developers within GD-NET had either departed or went out of business, which caused ESP to diminish and lose financial backing. ESP also began publishing games for the PlayStation 2, which had become the best-selling video game console in Japan and outsold the Dreamcast by a wide margin.[19][20]

After Sega ended production of the Dreamcast in 2001 and CSK sold its shares of the company to Sammy Corporation,[21] Game Arts acquired ESP and became its publishing division. In 2004, ESP was purchased by D3 Publisher, a Japanese video game studio best known for its Simple series of budget games.[22][23] D3 purchased 100% of ESP's stock for a total of 120 million yen. ESP's track record and lineup of commercially successful games was the reason for the acquisition, with ESP becoming a wholly owned subsidiary of D3.[23] In addition to publishing other developer's titles for systems like the PlayStation 2 and Nintendo DS, ESP also began developing its own games such as Hajime no Ippo Portable Victorious Spirits for the PlayStation Portable.[24] ESP co-published several Japanese massively multiplayer online games as well.[25] In 2008 the company partnered with Treasure, the only remaining GD-NET company to still have working relations with them, to form a publishing project known as "Treasure × ESP".[26] The project lead to ESP publishing Bangai-O Spirits for the DS, a critically successful sequel to Bangai-O.[27]

On April 1, 2010, ESP announced through its official website that the company had been shut down and merged with the video game operations of D3 Publisher.[28] A year earlier, D3 became a subsidiary of Namco Bandai Games, who purchased 95% of its stock and became a member of Bandai Namco Holdings, also known as the Bandai Namco Group.[29][30][31] All of ESP's properties and assets are now owned by both D3 and Bandai Namco.

• Official website (archived)