Hudson Soft

Infobox Company
company_name = Hudson Soft Company, Limited
company_
company_slogan = Creating software for the human network
company_type = Public
(subsidiary of Konami)
foundation = May 18 1973
location = Sapporo, Japan
industry = Computer and video game industry
revenue = 11.8 billion Yen 2005
num_employees = 500
Owner = Konami Corporation
key_people = Hidetoshi Endo - President and CEO
products=Bomberman
Bonk
Adventure Island
Tengai Makyou (Far East of Eden)
Momotaro Dentetsu
Mario Party series
homepage = [http://www.hudsonsoft.net Official Hudson Soft Website]

Hudson Soft Company, Limited is a Japanese electronic entertainment publisher. It was founded on May 18 1973. Initially, Hudson dealt with personal computer products, but has expanded to the development and publishing of video games, mobile content, and video game peripherals. As of 2003, the company employs over 500 people, with offices in Sapporo, Tokyo, and California. Hudson Soft is owned by Konami Corporation.

History

Hudson Soft Ltd. was founded in Sapporo, Japan on May 18, 1973 by brothers Yuji and Hiroshi Kudo. The founders grew up admiring trains, and named the business after their favorite, the Hudson locomotive. Hudson began as a shop selling telecommunications devices and art photographs. In September 1975, Hudson Soft began selling personal computer-related products, and in March 1978 started developing and selling computer game packages.

Hudson became Nintendo's first third-party software vendor for its Family Computer. Hudson's second title for this console, "Lode Runner", sold 1.2 million units after its 1984 release. The business continued developing video games on the Famicom and other platforms (NEC PC-8801 MSX, ZX Spectrum), and was reorganized as Hudson Soft Co., Ltd. in November 1984. In July 1985, a "caravan" was held at sixty venues throughout Japan, a first for the video game industry. "Bomberman" was released in December of this year on the Famicom and considered a "big hit" by Hudson Soft.

In July 1987, Hudson developed the "C62 System" and collaborated with Nippon Electric Corporation 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 Nintendo and Sega's new Genesis. Throughout 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 December 2000, Hudson Soft Co., Ltd. entered the stockmarket, listing on Nippon New Market Hercules, formerly known as NASDAQ Japan Exchange. This led to Konami Corporation 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.

Venturing further into the North America market, in November 2003, Hudson established Hudson Entertainment, Inc. as a wholly owned subsidiary in California. This, however, wasn't the company's first venue in the continent, as they had once operated from 1988 to 1995 another subsidiary, Hudson Soft USA, which published numerous video games for the Nintendo Entertainment System, Super Nintendo and Game Boy.

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. Hudson continue to self publish, although works closely with Konami.

Video game releases

Hudson Soft has released video games since 1978, with series such as "Bomberman", "Bonk" and "Adventure Island".

Hudson continues to release long running video game series in Japan. "Tengai Makyou (Far East of Eden)" is a classic RPG set in a fictional era with Japanese themes. The series is up to number 4, and is considered a hit in Japan. The second version of the game was widely regarded as one 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 game "Momotaro Dentetsu", a board game with locomotive themes. The comical game is already up to version 16 in Japan. Hudson has recently re-released some of their first hit games for the Nintendo GameCube in Japan, including "Adventure Island", "Star Soldier", and "Lode Runner".

Hudson has a long history of creating games for other publishers. Most notable include the "Mario Party" series, created for Nintendo. The game series is up to version 8. Hudson also developed "Fuzion Frenzy 2" for Microsoft, which was released for the Xbox 360 in January 2007.

Virtual Console

On March 23, 2006, at the GDC Conference in California, it was announced by Nintendo president Satoru Iwata that Nintendo would offer virtual backward compatibility of the TurboGrafx-16 with their game console, the Wii.

During an interview with IGN on May 11, 2006, Hudson Soft stated that they were currently in the process of acquiring the rights to games developed by now-defunct game developers. [http://revolution.ign.com/articles/708/708057p1.html]

External links

* [http://www.hudson.co.jp Hudson Soft official site] ja icon
* [http://www.hudsonentertainment.com Hudson Entertainment official site]
* [http://www.hudsonsoft.net/ww/index.html Hudson official worldwide site]