Artoon
Artoon Co., Ltd. was a Japanese video game developer established in 1999 by former Sega members, namely Naoto Ohshima and Yoji Ishii. The studio was primarily affiliated in the United States with projects on Microsoft's Xbox and Xbox 360, although they had also worked with Hudson Soft and Nintendo on other platforms.
Artoon was situated in Yokohama, Kanagawa, with a secondary office in Naha, Okinawa. It became a subsidiary of AQ Interactive in May 2004, and was fully acquired in June 2005. Around 2010, Artoon, along with AQ's other development studios Feelplus and Cavia, were absorbed into AQ.
Overview
Early years (1999-2004)
Artoon was founded on August 27, 1999 by Yoji Ishii, along with Naoto Ohshima, both of whom had left Sega the previous year. Additional ex-Sega staff joining Artoon included Manabu Kusunoki, Hidetoshi Takeshita, Yutaka Sugano, Masamichi Harada, and Takuya Matsumoto. Most of the Sega members hailed from Sonic Team, but a few also worked on the Panzer Dragoon series at Team Andromeda. The studio's name was taken from the word "cartoon". Throughout its life, Artoon employed approximately 85 people. Artoon's first game was Pinobee: Wings of Adventure, released by Hudson Soft in 2001.When the Xbox launched in Japan in February 2002, Artoon was one of the developers chosen by Microsoft, who began seeking Japanese developers in an attempt to gain a foothold in the market by creating games to appeal to the Japanese market. The end result was Blinx: The Time Sweeper, released in Japan on December 12, 2002.
AQ Interactive and later projects (2004-2010)
Artoon was acquired by publisher AQ Interactive in May 2004 and became a subsidiary. Artoon was fully acquired by AQ in June 2005 and became a wholly-owned subsidiary alongside developers Feelplus and Cavia. In the process, Artoon co-founder Ishii moved to AQ to become its President and CEO. Some of Artoon's later games would be published in Japan by AQ.Artoon collaborated with Hironobu Sakaguchi's Mistwalker to develop Blue Dragon, an Xbox 360 title on which Artoon did much of the work. Around the same time, it collaborated with Nintendo again to develop Yoshi's Island DS.
In its final years, the studio collaborated with Sony Computer Entertainment on Echoshift, and Disney Interactive Studios on Club Penguin: Game Day!
In June 2010, Yoji Ishii stepped down from AQ Interactive. Around the same time, Artoon, along with Feelplus and Cavia, were all absorbed into AQ. Artoon's final game was FlingSmash, released in 2010.
Around the same time as Artoon's dissolution, Ohshima, Ishii, and the remaining staff formed a new studio, Arzest, based in Artoon's former offices.