Hudson Soft Co., Ltd.[a] was a Japanese video game company that released numerous games for video game consoles, home computers and mobile phones, mainly from the 1980s to the 2000s. It was headquartered in the Midtown Tower in Tokyo, with an additional office in the Hudson Building in Sapporo.[5]
Hudson Soft was founded on May 18, 1973. Initially, it dealt with personal computer products, but later expanded to the development and publishing of video games, mobile content, video game peripherals and music recording. Primarily a video game publisher, it internally developed many of the video games it released while outsourcing others to external companies. It is known for series such as Bomberman, Adventure Island, Star Soldier, Bonk and Bloody Roar.[6] Hudson also developed video games released by other publishers such as the Mario Party series from Nintendo. The mascot of the company is a bee named Hachisuke.
Hudson Soft ceased to exist as a company on March 1, 2012, and merged with Konami Digital Entertainment, which was the surviving entity.[7] Konami owns the assets of Hudson and has since rereleased its video game back catalogue on different occasions.[8][9]
History
Hudson Soft Ltd. was founded in Toyohira-ku, Sapporo, Japan on May 18, 1973, by brothers Yuji and Hiroshi Kudo. The founders grew up admiring trains, and named the business after their favourite, the Hudson locomotives (called the "4-6-4", and especially Japanese C62).
Hudson began as an amateur radio shop called CQ Hudson (CQハドソン), selling radio telecommunications devices and artphotographs. Yuji Kudo had originally planned to start a coffee shop, but there was already one in the same building, resulting in the decision to change to a wireless radio shop at the eleventh hour. Although the Kudo brothers had university education, neither had studied in business management. That factor, combined with the difficulty to find trustworthy people to accompany the Kudos in their venture, meant that Hudson was almost always in the red each month during its era exclusively as a radio shop.
In September 1975, Hudson began selling personal computer-related products and in March 1978 started developing and selling video game packages.[10] At that time, many amateur radio shops were switching to the sales of personal computers because they deal with the same electronic equipment. CQ Hudson would continue to operate for decades in Sapporo until Hudson Soft closed the shop in May 2001.
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Hudson Soft favoured a quantity-over-quality approach for the marketing of video games.[11] At one point, the company released up to 30 different computer software titles per month; none of which were hugely successful.[11] Things changed in late 1983, when Hudson started to prioritise quality-over-quantity.[11] Hudson became Nintendo's first third-party software vendor for the Family Computer and its title for this console, Lode Runner, sold 1.2 million units after its 1984 release.[12]
The business continued developing video games on the Famicom and computer platforms (MSX, NEC PC-8801 and ZX Spectrum, among others). Bomberman was released in December of this year on the Famicom and was considered a "big hit" by Hudson Soft.[13]
In July 1987, Hudson developed the "C62 System" and collaborated with NEC to develop the PC Engine video game console. It achieved a second-best success to Famicom in Japan, but its release as the TurboGrafx-16 in North America had less market share than Nintendo's new Super NES or Sega's new Genesis. In 1990, Hudson Soft developed and published video games for an array of systems. In 1994, the 32-bit semiconductor chip "HuC62" was independently developed by Hudson and used in NEC's PC-FX video game console.
In 2004, Hudson started a joint venture with Flying Tiger Entertainment for 25 titles.[14]
Hudson Soft relocated its main office to Tokyo in 2005, although the Sapporo headquarters remained in operation as a secondary office.
Hudson Soft lost several key people starting in the mid-2000s. Co-founder Hiroshi Kudo left the company in November 2004 following financial losses.[15] Shinichi Nakamoto, who was with the company since 1978 and creator of the Bomberman series, followed suit in 2006. Veteran Takahashi Meijin resigned in May 2011; he had joined Hudson Soft in 1982.[16] Around 2010–2011, many employees migrated to Nintendo's restructured NDcube (now Nintendo Cube) studio which was headed by Hidetoshi Endo, himself a former Hudson Soft president.
Relation with Konami
The relation between Hudson Soft and Konami can be traced to at least as early as 1985, when Hudson ported Konami's arcade game Pooyan to the MSX and Famicom. But the acquisition process of Hudson Soft by Konami would only begin in 2001.
Hudson Soft was severely hit by the collapse of its main bank Hokkaido Takushoku.[17] Seeking new financing alternatives, Hudson Soft entered the stock market for the first time in December 2000, listing on the NASDAQ Japan Exchange.[18] This led to Konami purchasing a stock allocation of 5.6 million shares in August 2001, becoming the company's largest shareholder. Within the terms of this purchase, Hudson acquired the Sapporo division of Konami Computer Entertainment Studio, renaming it Hudson Studio.[19]
In April 2005, capital was increased via an allocation of 3 million shares from a third party. Konami Corporation, holding 53.99% of all Hudson stock, became Hudson's majority shareholder and parent company.[15] Hudson Soft continued to publish video games while working closely with Konami, who became Hudson's distributor in Japan.[20]
In April 2011, Hudson Soft became a wholly owned subsidiary of Konami.[21][22] Its American division, Hudson Entertainment, was liquidated in the process.[23]
On March 1, 2012, Hudson Soft officially ceased to exist following a merger with Konami Digital Entertainment, with its music business being absorbed into KME Corporation.[7][24] The move was not a unilateral decision from Konami, but rather a voluntary merger agreed by the two companies during a board meeting held on January 12, 2012.[21][25] The main reason for the dissolution of Hudson Soft was the consolidation of the operations of Hudson and Konami into a single company.[24][26]
Despite the demise of Hudson Soft, Konami had planned for products to continue being developed and offered under the Hudson brand.[24][26] The Hudson website was even initially retained and maintained by Konami.[27] By early 2014 however, Konami had retired the website.[28] The pre-2005 headquarters of Hudson Soft in Sapporo continued to operate as a branch of Konami well after the absorption until it closed in 2014.[29] In 2015, Konami sold the Sapporo building that had long been the headquarters of Hudson Soft.[30]
Caravan competitions
On a yearly basis from 1985 to 2000, and sporadically since, Hudson Soft has held a games competition across Japan known as the "Hudson All-Japan Caravan Festival". Most years the competition focused around a single game, with all of the initial years of 1985 to 1992 except 1988 being shoot em ups. During these years, the Caravan can be seen as a hallmark of Hudson's popularity. Later Caravans were less popular and featured less punishing games. Several of these later Caravans focused on Hudson Softs popular Bomberman series.
Many of the early shoot 'em up games used for the Caravan competition included two-minute and five-minute modes built into the cartridges, to allow potential competitors to practice prior to the competitions.
1985 - Star Force for the Famicom became the first game featured for the summer competitions held within Japan.
1986 - Star Soldier for the Famicom became the second competition game.
1987 - Starship Hector (In Japan, simply Hector '87) was the third and last Famicom game featured as the Hudson Caravan moved onto the newer PC Engine. The first three were reproduced in Hudson Caravan Collection for the Super Famicom and Hudson Best Collection for the Game Boy Advance
1988 - Power League (World Class Baseball in the USA) became the first PC Engine competition game, unusual for the competition being a sports game rather than a shooter.
1989 - Gunhed (Blazing Lazers) for the PC Engine was the competition game. A small number of cartridges were produced for the competition under the name Gunhed Taikai (Special Edition) and are very rare and expensive for the most hardcore of collectors to find.
1992 - Soldier Blade for the PC Engine would be the last of the popular caravan competitions as later events were held using the more casual Bomberman and other games fittingly popular at the time. The PC Engine games from '90, '91, and '92 were re-released as the PC Engine Best Collection - Soldier Collection for the PSP.[31]
Subsidiaries
Hudson Studio
A division located in Sapporo. Originally formed as a division of Konami Computer Entertainment Studio, it was acquired by Hudson on July 26, 2001.[32]
In late 1995, Hudson Soft USA sold off the rights for all of its yet-to-be-released games to Acclaim Entertainment and moved its headquarters to Seattle, Washington,[35] before closing down by the end of the year.[36]
Hudson Entertainment, Inc.
Hudson Soft's second North American publishing division, reestablished by John Brandstetter of Flying Tiger and formed in November 2003 as the successor to Hudson Soft USA and headquartered in Brea California at Flying Tiger's Headquarters. Then it was moved to San Mateo, California.[37] Starting out as a video game publisher for mobile content, it expanded into console video games in 2007.[38]
On July 23, 2003, Hudson Soft announced the start of its North American mobile phone Java game service, GameMaster, which was created by Flying Tiger for AT&T's mMode, and NTT DoCoMo effective on July 28, 2003.[39]
Hudson Entertainment ceased operations on March 31, 2011, after Konami's acquisition of the parent company.[40]
Hudson Music Entertainment
Hudson Soft's music recording label unit. Absorbed on March 1, 2012, into KME Corporation, the music subsidiary of Konami Digital Entertainment.[7]
Hudson also released a long-running and popular video game series in Japan. Far East of Eden was a classic RPG set in a fictionalized feudal Japan. The series was up to its fourth main entry when Hudson was absorbed into Konami. The second entry in the series was widely regarded as one of the best RPGs ever released, ranked 12th by Famitsu among all games released in Japan. Hudson Soft also created the long-running and critically acclaimed Momotaro Dentetsu series, a board game-style video game centered around business transactions. 16 games in the series released in Japan. Before its absorption, Hudson had re-released some of its first hit games for the GameCube in Japan, including Adventure Island, Star Soldier, and Lode Runner.
Hudson had a long history of creating games for other companies. The most notable of these were the Mario Party games, which they developed for Nintendo. They developed the first eight console installments and two handheld spin-offs; however, due to Hudson being acquired by Konami, Mario Party 9 and all games after that have been developed by Nintendo subsidiary NDcube, which consists of many former Hudson employees. Hudson also developed Fuzion Frenzy 2 for Microsoft, which was released for the Xbox 360 in January 2007. Bomberman 64: The Second Attack was published by Vatical Entertainment, unlike the former two games on the Nintendo 64 which were both published by Nintendo.
The TurboGrafx-16, known as the PC Engine outside North America, is a home video game console designed by Hudson Soft and sold by NEC Home Electronics. It was the first console marketed in the fourth generation, commonly known as the 16-bit era, however in actuality, the console has an 8-bit central processing unit (CPU) coupled with a 16-bit graphics processor, effectively making the claim somewhat false advertising. It was released in Japan in 1987 and in North America in 1989. In Europe the Japanese model was unofficially imported and distributed in the United Kingdom and France from 1988. In Japan, the system was launched as a competitor to the Famicom, but the delayed United States release meant that it ended up competing with the Sega Genesis and later the Super NES.
Konami Group Corporation, commonly known as Konami, is a Japanese multinational entertainment company and video game developer and publisher headquartered in Chūō, Tokyo. The company also produces and distributes trading cards, anime, tokusatsu, pachinko machines, slot machines, and arcade cabinets. It has casinos around the world, and operates health and physical fitness clubs across Japan.
TwinBee (ツインビー) is a video game series composed primarily of cartoon-themed vertical-scrolling shoot-'em-up games produced by Konami that were released primarily in Japan. The series originated as a coin-operated video game simply titled TwinBee in 1985, which was followed by several home versions and sequels. The character designs of almost every game in the series since Detana!! TwinBee in 1991 were provided by Japanese animator Shuzilow HA, who also planned and supervised most of the subsequent installments in the TwinBee series. The series also inspired a radio drama adaptation that lasted three seasons in Japan, as well as an anime adaptation.
Bonk, known as PC-Genjin in Japan and as PC Kid or B.C. Kid in PAL territories, is a video game character and former mascot for NEC's PC Engine/TurboGrafx-16 video game console. Three platform games featuring the character appeared on the PC Engine/TurboGrafx-16, as well as two spin-offs featuring Air Zonk. The protagonist is a bald caveman named Bonk who attacks using his comically large head.
A multitap is a video game console peripheral that increases the number of controller ports available to the player, allowing additional controllers to be plugged in simultaneously in a manner similar to a power strip or a USB hub. A multitap often takes the form of a box with three or more controller ports which is then connected to a controller port on the console itself.
Bomberman is a maze video game developed and published by Hudson Soft. The original home computer game Bomber Man was released in July 1983 for the NEC PC-8801, NEC PC-6001 mkII, Fujitsu FM-7, Sharp MZ-700, Sharp MZ-2000, Sharp X1 and MSX in Japan, and a graphically modified version for the MSX and ZX Spectrum in Europe as Eric and the Floaters. A sequel, 3-D Bomberman, was produced. In 1985, Bomberman was released for the Nintendo Entertainment System. It spawned the Bomberman series with many installments building on its basic gameplay.
Military Madness is a 1989 turn-based strategy video game originally developed and published by Hudson Soft in Japan and NEC in North America for the TurboGrafx-16. It is the first entry in the Nectaris series. Set in the year 2089, players take command of the Allied-Union forces in a desperate offense against the Axis-Xenon Empire army on the Moon before they launch the S.A.M. weapon to obliterate Earth. Its gameplay consists of moving units into positions to confront enemies in turn-based encounters determined by multiple factors, capturing factories to produce resources and repair units in order to occupy the enemy prison camp or destroy all enemy forces.
Bomberman: Panic Bomber is a 1994 puzzle video game developed and published by Hudson Soft for the PC Engine on December 22, 1994. It was later released for the Neo Geo, Super Famicom, Sharp X68000, FM Towns, NEC PC-9821, Virtual Boy, and PlayStation Portable. It saw a re-release for the Wii and Wii U's Virtual Console services. Panic Bomber is a falling block game with the players' goal being to clear matching blocks using bombs, ensuring that their screen does not fill and that their opponents' screens do. It received mixed to positive reception, identified as a decent game by multiple critics. It has been compared to the falling block puzzle game Tetris. The Virtual Boy version received a mixed reception for its handling of the platform's visual capabilities.
Princess Tomato in the Salad Kingdom is a video game by Hudson Soft originally released in 1984 for the NEC PC-8801, NEC PC-6001, FM-7 and MSX Japanese home computers.
Detana!! TwinBee, released in Europe and North America as Bells & Whistles, is a 1991 vertically scrolling shooter arcade video game developed and released by Konami. It is the fifth entry in the TwinBee series and the second to be released for arcades following the original TwinBee. Set several years after the events of TwinBee, players assume the role of Light and Pastel taking control of TwinBee and WinBee to defeat invading forces of the evil alien Iva and save planet Meru after receiving an SOS message sent by Princess Melora.
Gunhed, known as Blazing Lazers in North America, is a vertically scrolling shooter game by Hudson Soft and Compile, based on the Japanese film Gunhed. The title was released in 1989, for the PC Engine in Japan and re-skinned for the TurboGrafx-16 in North America, with Gunhed unofficially imported for the PC Engine in Europe. In the game, a fictional galaxy is under attack by an enemy space armada called the Dark Squadron, and this galaxy's only chance for survival is the Gunhed Advanced Star Fighter, who must destroy the Dark Squadron and its Super Weapons. The gameplay features fast vertical scrolling and a wide array of weapons for the player to use.
Momotaro Dentetsu is a long-running board game-style video game series in Japan; in which players travel by rail, ship, and airplane; attempting to acquire wealth through business transactions buying properties; and dealing with rival entrepreneurs and nemeses such as the God of Poverty. The game mechanics are often compared to the board games sugoroku and Monopoly.
Jaseiken Necromancer is a 1988 role-playing video game by Hudson Soft for the PC Engine. The game has never been officially translated into English despite becoming available as a downloadable purchase in United States and Europe.
Star Soldier is a series of scrolling shooters mainly developed by Hudson Soft. Konami has owned the rights to the series since their absorption of Hudson Soft in 2012.
Puzzle Series is a series of puzzle video games by Hudson Soft.
Tokimeki Memorial is a dating sim video game developed and published by Konami. The first game in the Tokimeki Memorial series, it was first released for the PC Engine's Super CD-ROM² System on May 27, 1994. It was directed by Yoshiaki Nagata, with Koji Igarashi working on scenario writing. It later received ports to the PlayStation in 1995, Sega Saturn and Super Famicom in 1996, Windows in 1997, Game Boy Color in 1999, mobile phones in 2004, PlayStation Portable in 2006, and Nintendo Switch in 2025.
Neo Bomberman is an action-maze arcade video game developed by Produce! and published by Hudson Soft for the Neo Geo MVS on May 1, 1997. It is one of two games in the Bomberman franchise that was released for the Neo Geo platform, the first being Panic Bomber, and the only one to retain its traditional top-down gameplay. It was released for the Neo Geo MVS (arcade) and has not received a home console release to date. It was the last original Bomberman title to be released for arcades until Konami's Bombergirl in 2018.
Star Soldier is a shoot 'em up video game developed and published by Hudson Soft for the Nintendo Entertainment System and the MSX. It is the first game in the Star Soldier series. The player pilots the starship "Caesar", traveling through space stations occupied by powerful supercomputers known as "Starbrains" who threaten the galactic empire. Star Soldier greatly resembles the earlier arcade game Star Force.
The TurboGrafx-16 Mini, also known as the PC Engine Mini in Japan and PC Engine CoreGrafx Mini in Europe, is a dedicated home video game console modeled on NEC's TurboGrafx-16, released in 2020. It is developed by Konami, who owns the properties of Hudson Soft, the designer of the original system. The Mini emulates the original's 8-bit hardware and comes with 57 or 58 games built-in.
↑ "Archived copy"(PDF). www.hudson.co.jp. Archived from the original(PDF) on August 13, 2011. Retrieved January 11, 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
↑ McFerran, Damien (2009). "Hudson Profile— Part 2 (RG)"(PDF). Retro Gamer Magazine. pp.44–49. Archived(PDF) from the original on January 31, 2012. Retrieved January 29, 2011.
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¥300 million (July 2011) [3] 
