is a
Japan ese company founded on
May 18 ,
1973 . Initially, Hudson dealt with
Personal Computer products, but has expanded to the development and publishing of
Video Game s,
Mobile Content , and video game peripherals. As of
2003 , the company employs over 500 people, with offices in
Sapporo ,
Tokyo , and
California .
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
Telecommunication s devices and
Art Photograph s. 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
Mega Drive . 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 .
Venturing further into the North America market, in
November 2003 , Hudson established 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.
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 .
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 upcoming 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.
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