Namco Tales Studio

Namco Tales Studio Ltd.[lower-alpha 1], formerly known as Wolf Team ((株)ウルフチーム, Urufu Chīmu), was a Japanese video game development company founded in 1986.[1] The company was renamed in 2003 when Telenet Japan sold part of its stake and made Namco the majority shareholder. Namco Tales Studio was originally the primary developer of the Tales RPG series, as it had been since the series' beginning. In November 2011, it was announced that the current Tales Studio would be dissolved and would merge with their publisher, Namco Bandai Games.[2][3] In February 2012, it was announced that the 80 people of the Tales team would join Bandai Namco Studios.[4]

Namco Tales Studio Ltd.
Native name
株式会社ナムコテイルズスタジオ
Kabushiki gaisha Namuko Teiruzu Sutajio
TypeSubsidiary
IndustryVideo games
FateMerged with Namco Bandai Games
Founded1986 (1986)
DefunctJanuary 1, 2012 (2012-01-01)
HeadquartersTokyo, Japan
Key people
Eiji Kikuchi
ProductsTales series
Parent
Websitenamco-talesstudio.co.jp

History

Originally headed by Masahiro Akishino, Wolf Team became independent from Telenet in 1987, was reintegrated in 1990 and got merged with another Telenet subsidiary called Lasersoft, then was completely absorbed in an internal restructuring at Telenet in 1993 at which point most of the staff left together with Akishino.

The remaining staff were the then-very-young programmer Yoshiharu Gotanda, designer Masaki Norimoto, director Joe Asanuma, graphic artist Yoshiaki Inagaki, sound composer Motoi Sakuraba, and sound effect designer Ryota Furuya. Wolf Team went on to create games such as Sol-Feace and Hiouden: Mamono-tachi tono Chikai, which faced weak sales. For Tale Phantasia, a game concept by Gotanda, they looked for an outside publisher with a better reputation.[5] After approaching Enix, Telenet struck a contract with Namco.

Namco, however, insisted upon many changes to the game, including renaming the title to Tales of Phantasia. The conflict over these changes pushed the game's release from 1994 into late 1995. Most of the initial staff left during this dispute and founded tri-Ace in early 1995.

To continue the lucrative arrangement with Namco to develop the Tales series, Telenet re-staffed Wolf Team and retained some other staff, such as Motoi Sakuraba on a freelance basis. They developed or co-developed nearly every game in the series until Wolf Team was renamed to Namco Tales Studio in early 2003, and Namco assumed majority ownership. In October 2007, Telenet filed for bankruptcy, and closed its doors, likely putting an end to the Wolf Team name.

Wolf Team was also notable for porting laserdisc video games to the Sega Mega-CD, including some Japan-only arcades like Time Gal and Ninja Hayate (released as Revenge of the Ninja for the Sega Mega-CD outside Japan).

At the time of its renaming Namco owned 60% of this venture, Telenet Japan/Kazuyuki Fukushima retained 34%, and Tales series director Eiji Kikuchi received 6%. (Kikuchi, who was the head of Telenet's game development department for 10 years, left Telenet to head the new team full-time.) Effective on April 1, 2006, the then-newly merged Bandai Namco Holdings bought the remaining shares from Telenet Japan, cutting the last link to the developers' former employer and increasing its stockholding majority to 94%. Currently, Bandai Namco now owns 100% of the company.

Namco Tales Studios remains the primary developer of the so-called Mothership titles of the Tales series, with the exception of Tales of Legendia and Tales of Innocence. Legendia was developed by an internal Namco development team called Team Melfes, featuring a unique battle system developed by some of the creators of the Soulcalibur series (also a Namco property), which is why it is so different from the others. Innocence was developed by an independent developer, Alfa System, which also developed various spinoff games in the Tales series.

Developed games

Namco Tales Studio has developed games for the Nintendo GameCube, PlayStation, Game Boy Advance, PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable, Nintendo DS, Nintendo 3DS, Wii, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3.

GameRelease datePlatform
Tales of Phantasia1995Super NES
Tales of Destiny1997PlayStation
Tales of Eternia2000PlayStation
Tales of Destiny 22002PlayStation 2
Tales of Symphonia2003GameCube
Tales of Rebirth2004PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable
Tales of the Abyss2005PlayStation 2
Tales of Destiny Remake2006PlayStation 2
Tales of Destiny Director's Cut2008PlayStation 2
Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World2008Wii
Tales of Vesperia2008Xbox 360, PlayStation 3
Tales of Hearts2008Nintendo DS
Tales of Graces2009Wii
Keroro RPG: Kishi to Musha to Densetsu no Kaizoku[1]2010Nintendo DS
Tales of Phantasia: Narikiri Dungeon X2010PlayStation Portable
Tales of Graces F2010PlayStation 3
Tales of Xillia2011PlayStation 3

Notes: 1 Tales Studio sound staff only

For a complete list of Tales of games, see Tales (video game series).

As Wolf Team

Notes
  1. Japanese: 株式会社ナムコ・テイルズスタジオ, Hepburn: Kabushiki gaisha Namuko Teiruzu Sutajio

References
  1. Goulter, Tom (November 21, 2011). "Tales Studio shut down by Namco Bandai". GamesRadar+. Future plc. Archived from the original on April 25, 2020. Retrieved January 19, 2021.
  2. Anoop Gantayat (November 21, 2012). "Namco Bandai Dissolving Tales Studio". Andriasang. Retrieved June 2, 2012.
  3. Ashcraft, Brian (November 21, 2011). "Was This Inevitable? The Tales Studio Is Dead". Kotaku. G/O Media. Archived from the original on November 13, 2020. Retrieved January 19, 2021.
  4. http://www.bandainamco.co.jp/files/E38390E383B3E38380E382A4E3838AE383A0E382B3E382B9E3.pdf
  5. Pär Villner & Fredrik Schaufelberger: "Square Enix", Level (magazine) 29, September 2009, pg. 44-59. (Swedish)
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