Genius Sonority

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Genius Sonority, Inc.
ジニアス・ソノリティ株式会社
Company typePrivate
IndustryVideo games
FoundedJune 2002[1]
HeadquartersNihonbashi, Chūō, Tokyo, Japan[1]
Key people
Manabu Yamana (president, CEO)[1]
ProductsGames for Nintendo video game consoles
Number of employees
22[2]
Websitehttps://www.geniussonority.co.jp/

Genius Sonority (ジニアス・ソノリティ株式会社, Jiniasu Sonoriti Kabushiki Kaisha) is a Japanese video game development studio, whose staff consists of programmers who have previously worked on the Dragon Quest series of video games.

History[edit]

Genius Sonority was incorporated in June 2002 for the original purpose of developing Pokémon games for home consoles, with funding provided by Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi’s Q Fund, a cash reserve used for Nintendo game company start-ups.[3] Current shareholders of the company include Yamana Satoru, Nintendo, and The Pokémon Company.[1] The company's founder and current president, Manabu Yamana, is best known as a key person at Heartbeat, a company that developed games in the Dragon Quest series for Enix.[4] Yamana was joined in his efforts by members of Creatures Inc., the second-party Nintendo affiliate, which jointly owns the Pokémon Company and IP along with Nintendo and Game Freak.[4]

As well as developing various Pokémon-related titles, they also co-developed Dragon Quest Swords: The Masked Queen and the Tower of Mirrors for the Wii with Eighting.[5] The game was released in Japan in July 2007, and the rest of the world within ten months.

Genius Sonority's current flagship franchise is The Denpa Men, an RPG franchise revolving around forming a party by catching creatures known as "Denpa Men", who are randomly generated based on nearby Wi-Fi signals. The first game in the franchise, The Denpa Men: They Came By Wave, was released on Nintendo 3DS in 2012, and several games followed, including a mobile title and an upcoming entry for Nintendo Switch.

Titles[edit]

Year Title Publisher Notes
2003 Pokémon Colosseum Nintendo/The Pokémon Company
2005 Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness
2006 Pokémon Trozei!
Pokémon Battle Revolution
2007 Dragon Quest Swords: The Masked Queen and the Tower of Mirrors Square Enix Co-developed with Eighting
100 Classic Book Collection Nintendo
2008 Disney Fairies: Tinker Bell Disney Interactive
2010 Otona no Renai Shōsetsu: Harlequin Selection[6] Nintendo
2011 Learn with Pokémon: Typing Adventure Nintendo/The Pokémon Company
2012 The Denpa Men: They Came By Wave Genius Sonority
The Denpa Men 2: Beyond the Waves
2013 The Denpa Men 3: The Rise of Digitoll
2014 Pokémon Battle Trozei The Pokémon Company
The Denpa Men RPG Free! Genius Sonority
2015 Pokémon Shuffle Nintendo/The Pokémon Company
2017 The New Denpa Men Genius Sonority
2020 Pokemon Cafe Mix[7] Nintendo/The Pokémon Company
2024 The New Denpa Men RPG Free! Genius Sonority

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c d "会社紹介 (About Us)". GeniusSonority.jp (in Japanese). April 1, 2008. Archived from the original on 2009-03-10. Retrieved 2009-07-27.
  2. ^ "ジニアス・ソノリティ".
  3. ^ "Yamauchi Q Fund sees Dragon Quest start-up". Spong.com. 2002-08-08. Retrieved 2009-07-27.
  4. ^ a b Long, Andrew (2002-08-07). "Nintendo Lures RPG Talent". RPGamer.com. Archived from the original on 2002-08-13. Retrieved 2009-07-27.
  5. ^ Gantayat, Anoop (2007-01-23). "Dragon Quest Swords Update". IGN. Retrieved 2016-04-01.
  6. ^ Nintendo.co.jp
  7. ^ "Pokémon Café Mix for Nintendo Switch - Nintendo Game Details". Nintendo. Retrieved 17 June 2020.

External links[edit]