Capcom Co., Ltd. is a Japanese video game company. It has created a number of multi-million-selling game franchises, with its most commercially successful being Resident Evil, Monster Hunter, Street Fighter, Mega Man, Devil May Cry, Dead Rising, Ace Attorney, and Marvel vs. Capcom. Established in 1979, it has become an international enterprise with subsidiaries in East Asia, Europe, and North America.
Nippon Ichi Software, Inc. is a Japanese video game developer and publisher. The company was founded in 1991 and has developed several role-playing video games, most notably the Disgaea and Marl Kingdom series. Its mascot is the penguin-like Disgaea character Prinny.
Level-5 Inc. is a Japanese video game developer and publisher based in Fukuoka. The company was founded in October 1998 by Akihiro Hino after he departed from Riverhillsoft. Early in its history, the company enjoyed a close relationship with Sony Computer Entertainment, with many of its games then funded by and produced in conjunction with them. Level-5 began self-publishing its games in Japan by the late 2000s, with other companies such as Nintendo handling publishing worldwide. The company is best known for their Dark Cloud, Professor Layton, Inazuma Eleven, Ni no Kuni, Yo-kai Watch, and Snack World franchises.
CyberConnect2 Co., Ltd. is a Japanese video game development studio mostly known for its work on the .hack series, along with a series of fighting games based on the Naruto franchise. They are also known for creating the Little Tail Bronx series. In 2016, they expanded their workforce into the international market by opening a studio in Montreal, Canada.
Arcana Heart is a 2D arcade fighting game series developed by Team Arcana. The first edition was released to arcades in late 2007. The games feature an original all-female cast, and after choosing a character, the player chooses an "elemental alignment", or Arcana, which determines the character's special moves.
Mages Inc., formerly 5pb. Inc., is a Japanese video game developer and record label for video game and anime music.
Arcana Heart 3 is a 2011 2D arcade fighting game developed by Team Arcana and published by Arc System Works. It is the third entry in the Arcana Heart series, following the events of Arcana Heart 2.
Nitroplus Blasterz: Heroines Infinite Duel is a fighting game developed by Examu's Team Arcana and published by Nitroplus. The game crosses over heroines from various visual novels and games released by Nitroplus, as well as those from manga and anime series that Nitroplus writers have been involved with. The game was released in arcades on April 30, 2015 and was released on PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4 in collaboration with Marvelous Entertainment's Marvelous Inc. on December 10, 2015. Marvelous USA published the game in North America on February 2, 2016. It was later released on Windows on December 8, 2016. The game originates from the doujin game Nitro+ Royale: Heroines Duel, which is stated as its predecessor.
Spike Chunsoft Co., Ltd. is a Japanese video game development and localization company specializing in role-playing video games, visual novels and adventure games. The company was founded in 1984 as Chunsoft Co., Ltd. and merged with Spike in 2012. It is owned by Dwango.
Star Ocean: Anamnesis was a free-to-play role-playing video game developed by tri-Ace and published by Square Enix for Android and iOS devices. It was created in celebration of the Star Ocean series' 20th anniversary, and featured characters from all previous titles in the franchise, as well as music from series composer Motoi Sakuraba. The game was released in Japan in December 2016, and worldwide in July 2018. The global version of the game was shut down in November 2019, and the Japanese one in June 2021.
BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle is a 2D crossover fighting game developed and published by Arc System Works, first released for PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, and Windows in 2018. Cross Tag Battle features characters from different series, including BlazBlue, Persona 4 Arena, Under Night In-Birth, and RWBY. After the game was released, characters from Arcana Heart, Senran Kagura, and Akatsuki Blitzkampf were added as downloadable content. An arcade port was released in 2019 in Japan, a version for Amazon Luna was made available in 2021, and the Special Edition with all post-launch content was released for Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S in 2023. The game received mostly positive reviews, with praise for the visuals, music, online functionality and mechanics. However, it was criticised for lack of overall content at launch and DLC practices.
FuRyu Corporation (フリュー株式会社) is a Japanese entertainment company based in Shibuya, Tokyo. Their businesses include publishing and development of video games, mobile games, photo-booths, figures and multimedia content.
SNK Heroines: Tag Team Frenzy is a fighting game developed for PS4 by SNK and for Nintendo Switch and PC by Abstraction Games. The game was released for the Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4 in September 2018 and was published in Japan and Asia by SNK and SEGA and in International version by NIS America. An arcade version was released the following October and the Microsoft Windows version arrived in February 2019. It is a spiritual successor to SNK Gals' Fighters and features a 2v2 tag-team gameplay system, which was also used in Kizuna Encounter: Super Tag Battle.
Million Arthur is a Japanese media franchise created by Square Enix, consisting primarily of a series of video games. The first release was an online free-to-play card battle game titled Kaku-San-Sei Million Arthur, which was released for iOS and Android in 2012. A sequel game titled Kai-Ri-Sei Million Arthur was released in Japan in November 2014.
Samurai Shodown is a 2019 fighting game developed and published by SNK for arcades, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, Stadia, Xbox Series X and Series S, Android and iOS via Netflix Games, and Windows as an entry in the Samurai Shodown series, as well as a reboot to the series.
Team Arcana is a Japanese video game developer and a successor of Examu, which mostly produce fighting games for arcades and home consoles. It is known for developing the Arcana Heart series, the company's namesake, as well as Daemon Bride series. Team Arcana's existence as a re-branded successor of Examu had been dated back to Arcana Heart series' crossover inclusion in BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle.
In the video game industry, 2022 saw the lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the industry, slowing hardware sales for most of the year as well as development delays for major titles. The industry continued its trend of acquisitions and mergers, highlighted by Microsoft announcing its plan to acquire Activision Blizzard for nearly $69 billion. The industry as a whole continued to deal with issues such as workplace harassment and discrimination, alongside crunch periods, leading to at least the quality assurance staff at three separate studios to vote to unionize.
