Sora Ltd.

Sora Ltd.
Native name
 有限会社ソラ
Private
Industry Video game industry
Founded September 30, 2005 (2005-09-30)
Tokyo, Japan
Headquarters Iidabashi, Tokyo, Japan
Key people
 Masahiro Sakurai
Products Video games
Website www.project-sora.co.jp

Sora Ltd. (有限会社ソラ Yūgen kaisha sora) is a Japanese video game developer founded by Masahiro Sakurai, a former employee of HAL Laboratory. The company was notable for developing Super Smash Bros. video games and Meteos. Its division, Project Sora, developed Kid Icarus: Uprising.

History

Sora was built as an agency that would contract Sakurai as a freelance video game designer to different companies. His first project under Sora was designing Meteos with Q Entertainment. Nintendo's Satoru Iwata hired Sakurai, a long-time friend whom he had worked with at HAL Laboratory, to work on Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Development was supported by various other studios, including Game Arts and Monolith Soft, the latter now a first-party developer for Nintendo.

On 18 February 2009, after the success of Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Nintendo announced the formation of Project Sora, a subsidiary made to develop a new title directed by Sakurai. The development group was located in Iidabashi, Tokyo. It was officially formed on 22 January with capital of 200 million ¥, of which 72% was provided by Nintendo and the remainder by Sora Ltd. and other parties. Sakurai served as the company's president. The studio began development with a staff of 30 (most of whom were recruits Nintendo hired for the development of Super Smash Bros. Brawl), with new recruitment constantly ongoing for a bigger development staff. Project Sora released Kid Icarus: Uprising for the Nintendo 3DS in March 2012.[1][2] Project Sora was closed on June 30, and its closed website had a note: "The company was dissolved on June 30th, 2012. Thank you very much for your patronage so far. This website was closed on July 31st."[3] Bandai Namco Games collaborated with Sora Ltd. for the development of Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U.[4]

List of games developed

Year released Title Publisher Developed with Platform
2005 Meteos Nintendo Q Entertainment Nintendo DS
2008 Super Smash Bros. Brawl Nintendo Game Arts Wii
2012 Kid Icarus: Uprising Nintendo Project Sora Nintendo 3DS
2014 Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U Nintendo Bandai Namco Games Nintendo 3DS
Wii U

References

  1. ↑ "Smash Bros. Creator And Nintendo Announce New Title, New Company". Kotaku.com. 2009-02-18. Retrieved 2012-01-05.
  2. ↑ Pedro Hernandez (2011-12-26). "Kid Icarus: Uprising Japanese Release Date Announced". Nintendo World Report. Retrieved 2012-06-29.
  3. ↑ O'Brien, Lucy (July 10, 2012). "Kid Icarus: Uprising Developer Closes". IGN. Retrieved March 29, 2016.
  4. ↑ Drake, Audrey (June 21, 2012). "Namco Bandai Developing Next Smash Bros.". IGN. Retrieved June 21, 2012.


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