In April 1997, Culture Publishers, a movie and television distributor, formed a video game division, which was led by Yiji Ito. The division made a name for itself the following year when it introduced the Simple 1500 series of budget titles for the PlayStation, which by 2001 had sold seven million units.[3]
In 1999, Culture Publishers announced that they would exit the video game business, with Yiji Ito planning to purchase the division and re-establish it as an independent company.[4] In June, Ito purchased and renamed International Signal Co., Ltd., as D3 Publisher Co., Ltd. International Signal, originally formed in 1992 as CM Japan, was a real estate company, and after the purchase, its real estate operations were terminated. On July 12, Ito officially purchased Culture Publishers' video game division and merged it into D3 Publisher.[5]
In September 2002, D3 Publisher formed a new joint-venture development/publishing subsidiary with Sega called 3D Ages, with D3 Publisher holding a 49% stake in the new joint-venture unit.[6]
In August 2004, D3 announced it had purchased 100% in stocks of Japanese studio Entertainment Software Publishing for ¥120 million, becoming a fully-owned subsdiary.[7][8]
In April 2005, D3 signed a deal with Buena Vista Games to publish a majority of their video games in Japan.[9]
International expansion
In October 2004, the company announced that it would expand its operations into North America, founding D3 Publisher of America, Inc. in November.[10] The division, of which D3 held 99.5% of its shares, was intended to release and localise D3's budget titles but instead focused on the licensed children's game market.[11] with one of their first being a deal with Cartoon Network.[12]
In January 2006, the company opened up D3 Publisher of Europe Ltd., which would release much of the same products as the North American branch.[13] In April, D3 Publisher Co., Ltd. was renamed to D3 Inc. and became a holding company, with the publishing and distribution portion of the Japanese business transitioning to a new company under the D3 Publisher Co., Ltd. name.[14]
In January 2007, D3 Publisher of Europe launched a budget label, Essential Games, which released several Simple 2000 titles for the European market aimed at younger audiences.[15][16] In June 2007, D3 acquired North Carolina–based game development studio Vicious Cycle Software and transitioned it to D3 Publisher of America.[17]
In February 2009, Bandai Namco Holdings gained a 70% controlling share of D3 and announced that they would fully purchase out the company.[18][19][20] On March 18, Bandai Namco held a 95% share and announced they would acquire the rest of the company.[21][22]
On April 1, 2010, D3 Publisher Co., Ltd. and ESP merged and folded into D3 Inc., which was renamed to D3 Publisher Inc. on the same day.[23] D3 began a more straightforward partnership with Bandai Namco, with their US division publishing select Namco Bandai Games titles for the North American market.[24] Namco Bandai's European branch also began to publish D3's titles in Europe, with subsidiary Namco Bandai Partners handling distribution.[25]
In February 2012, D3 Publisher of Europe was dissolved.[26]
In September 2014, Little Orbit acquired Vicious Cycle Software from D3 Publisher of America.[27]
In May 2015, D3 Publisher announced that D3 Publisher of America Inc. would be refocused towards the mobile game market, and was renamed to D3 Go! Inc. The Japanese publishing division of D3 would remain as a console and handheld publisher.[28] While D3 Go! would semi-exclusively focus on mobile games, they would also be expected to release some games from D3 Publisher Inc.[29]
On June 27, 2022, 505 Games announced that they have acquired the assets of D3 Go![30]
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¥342.828 million (2020)
