Sunsoft
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| Public (JASDAQ: ) | |
| Industry | Video games |
| Founded | April 16, 1971 |
| Headquarters | Kōnan, Aichi, Japan |
| Products | List of games released by Sunsoft |
| Website | http://www.sunsoftgames.com |
Sunsoft (サンソフト San sofuto?) is a Japanese video game developer and publisher founded on April 16, 1971 as a division of Sun Corporation, itself a division of Sun Electronics, or Sun Denshi Corporation (サン電子株式会社 San Denshi kabushikigaisha?). Its U.S. subsidiary operated under the name Sunsoft of America, though games they published showed a logo that read only SUNSOFT.
Sunsoft's history in video games began in arcades with two video games released in 1978: Block Challenger and Block Perfect. They had several arcade hits in the early 1980s such as Arabian, Ikki and Kangaroo. In the latter half of the 1980s Sunsoft began developing original games and technology for the home video game console market, with emphasis mostly on the NES. Sunsoft had gone international at that time, and it had the publishing might to secure major licenses of the day (such as Batman and The Addams Family).
Outside Japan their NES games were widely considered state of the art in graphical and aural prowess. Sunsoft was slow to transition to 16-bit consoles, however, releasing several NES titles that went unnoticed in the shadow of the Super NES launch. Additionally, a number of Sega games, including Fantasy Zone, Fantasy Zone II and After Burner, were ported for Nintendo consoles by Sunsoft. The games Sunsoft produced in the 16-bit era were no longer as polished or cutting-edge, the licenses were less prominent, and no new hit games appeared. Finally, in 1995, they heavily restructured in the face of bankruptcy, and all the company's pending projects were either sold to other companies or cancelled.
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