Sora Ltd.

Sora Co. Ltd. (有限会社ソラ, Yūgen kaisha sora) is a Japanese video game company agency founded by Masahiro Sakurai and Michiko Sakurai. Sora is not a development company, and only acts as a company for Sakurai and his wife Michiko to proceed with contracts with publishers, with Sakurai working mainly as director and Michiko as UI designer. Due to having only two members, Sora works with other development companies which act as the lead developer while Sakurai direct the employees of those companies. Super Smash Bros. series (from Brawl onwards), Kid Icarus: Uprising and Meteos are some of the projects which they were involved.

Sora Ltd.
Native name
有限会社ソラ
Kabushiki gaisha
IndustryVideo games
FoundedSeptember 30, 2005 (2005-09-30)
Tokyo, Japan
FounderMasahiro Sakurai 
HeadquartersIidabashi, Tokyo, Japan
Key people
Masahiro Sakurai
Michiko Sakurai
Number of employees
2

History

After years working in the development company Hal Laboratory, Masahiro Sakurai and Michiko Sakurai decided to quit the company to work as freelancers with their own company. With this, Sora was built as an agency that would contract them as freelancers to different companies. His first project under Sora was Meteos with Q Entertainment. Nintendo's Satoru Iwata hired Sakurai, someone he had worked with at HAL Laboratory, to work on Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Development was supported by various other studios, including Game Arts and Monolith Soft.

On 18 February 2009, Nintendo announced the formation of Project Sora, a subsidiary created to develop a new video game, which would be directed by Sakurai. The development group was located in Iidabashi, Tokyo. The company was officially formed on 22 January 2009, with capital of 200 million ¥, of which 72% was provided by Nintendo and the remainder by Sora Ltd. and other parties. Sakurai served as the company's president. The studio began development of Kid Icarus: Uprising with a staff of 30 developers (most of whom were recruits Nintendo hired for the development of Super Smash Bros. Brawl), with more staff being recruited during the development process. Kid Icarus: Uprising was released in March 2012 for the Nintendo 3DS.[1][2] Project Sora ceased operations on June 30. The official Project Sora website announced: "The company was dissolved on June 30th, 2012. Thank you very much for your patronage so far. This website will be closed on July 31st."[3]Bandai Namco Studios would collaborate with Sora Ltd. for the development of Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U[4] and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Both games were published by Nintendo.

List of games developed
Year released Title Publisher Developed with Platform
2005 Meteos Bandai Q Entertainment Nintendo DS
2008 Super Smash Bros. Brawl Nintendo Game Arts Wii
2012 Kid Icarus: Uprising Nintendo Project Sora Nintendo 3DS
2014 Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U Nintendo Bandai Namco Studios Nintendo 3DS
Wii U
2018 Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Nintendo Bandai Namco Studios Nintendo Switch

References
  1. "Smash Bros. Creator And Nintendo Announce New Title, New Company". Kotaku.com. 2009-02-18. Retrieved 2012-01-05.
  2. Pedro Hernandez (2011-12-26). "Kid Icarus: Uprising Japanese Release Date Announced". Nintendo World Report. Retrieved 2012-06-29.
  3. O'Brien, Lucy (July 10, 2012). "Kid Icarus: Uprising Developer Closes". IGN. Retrieved March 29, 2016.
  4. Drake, Audrey (June 21, 2012). "Namco Bandai Developing Next Smash Bros". IGN. Retrieved June 21, 2012.



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