Treasure (company)

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Treasure Co. Ltd
Type Public
Founded June 19, 1992
Headquarters Japan
Key people Masato Maegawa, CEO
Industry Video games
Products video games
Employees unknown
Website http://www.treasure-inc.co.jp/

Treasure is a Japanese video game developer, founded by former employees of Konami on June 19, 1992.[1] Treasure is best known for classic-style action games that employ innovative gameplay systems. Their greatest commercial successes have been games like Wario World and Mischief Makers, but they are better known for their critical successes, such as Gunstar Heroes, Ikaruga, Radiant Silvergun, and Bangai-O.

Treasure is a small, privately held company, consisting of around 30-40 members, though this number is somewhat misleading as they also employ independent contractors to assist development and sometimes partner with other companies like Nintendo, G.rev, and Sega to increase the size of their teams.

Because Treasure is a small, independent company, they generally depend on outside partnerships to finance development. As a result, they've worked on many titles based on licenses, including Astro Boy, McDonald's, Bleach, and Tiny Toons, as well as partnering with companies like Sega, Enix, and Nintendo to produce original properties. They have produced a handful of independently produced games, most notably their arcade shooters, Ikaruga and Radiant Silvergun.

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[edit] Internal structure

Treasure does not have a rigid hierarchy. There are not designated "directors" from project to project. A leader is selected for each individual project, and that leader will usually also work hands on as an artist or programmer as well. There are, however, rough divisions of "teams" which have many common members from project to project.

As of present, Treasure is divided informally into three teams. These team divisions have been fairly consistent since 2001. The "Shooting" team (formerly called the "Arcade" team) is led by Hiroshi Iuchi and Atsutomo Nakagawa, and focuses on developing arcade-style shoot 'em ups.

The "action" team is the company's primary console unit, and developed Stretch Panic, Wario World and has various leaders at different times.

The "handheld" team is usually led in part by founding Treasure employee Yoshiyuki Matsumoto, better known as "Yaiman," and also features a number of programmers and artists that have come to the company from Hitmaker, whom they partnered with on Astro Boy: Omega Factor.

[edit] Games developed by Treasure

Items marked with a '*' were not released in North America/Europe/Australia.[2]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Treasure Home Page - 会社概要 (Japanese). Retrieved on 2007-12-06.
  2. ^ Treasure Home Page - 製品情報 (Japanese). Retrieved on 2007-12-06.

[edit] External links