tri-Ace, Inc. (株式会社トライエース, Kabushiki Gaisha Toraiēsu) is a Japanese video game developer founded in 1995. They are known for their role-playing games, most notably the Star Ocean and Valkyrie Profile series.
 | |
| Company type | Subsidiary |
|---|---|
| Industry | Video games |
| Founded | March 1995 |
| Headquarters | , |
Key people |
|
| Products | |
Number of employees | 182 (2022)[1] |
| Parent | Nepro Japan (2015–present) |
| Website | tri-ace.co.jp |
History
edittri-Ace was formed in March 1995 by former Telenet Japan employees Yoshiharu Gotanda programmer, current tri-Ace President), Masaki Norimoto (game designer) and Joe Asanuma (director). The name is a play on words regarding the "three aces" who formed the company. Most of tri-Ace's games have been published by Square Enix (formerly Enix).
The company exclusively makes role-playing video games, and is known for giving their games' action-packed battle systems and deep skill systems. This trademark style began when the founders of tri-Ace originally worked for Telenet Japan's Wolfteam, and had created Tales of Phantasia. This game, published by Namco, is a precursor to tri-Ace's own Star Ocean games in several ways; e.g., an action battle system where the player controls one character and AI controls others in the party and special battle skills that the player can assign to different buttons. Besides the Star Ocean series, they also released Valkyrie Profile in 1999.
After their long-time Square Enix liaison and producer, Yoshinori Yamagishi, announced that he was done working on the Star Ocean series in 2009,[2] several of tri-Ace's works started to be published by different game companies other than Square Enix. Such as their 2010 release of Resonance of Fate which was taken to Sega publishing.[3] As well, onwards there began to be a lack of tri-Ace games that received English localizations until Exist Archive in 2016.
tri-Ace games have sold over 3.8 million copies worldwide as of September 2005.[4] The company's sound programmer Hiroya Hatsushiba formed tri-Crescendo in 1999 which has since developed several games independently of tri-Ace.
Japanese mobile company Nepro Japan acquired tri-Ace in February 2015.[5] Despite being acquired by a company focusing on mobile gaming, tri-Ace continued developing video games for consoles,[6] as evidenced by Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness in 2016 and then Star Ocean: The Divine Force in 2022, but weeks before the release for Star Ocean: The Divine Force, tri-Ace was reported to have financial issues and was insolvent.[7][8]
Games developed
editReferences
edit- ^ "Tri-Ace Inc".
- ^ Winkler, Chris (September 25, 2009). "Producer Done With Star Ocean". RPGFan. Archived from the original on August 11, 2019. Retrieved June 4, 2023.
- ^ a b "株式会社トライエース". www.tri-ace.co.jp (in Japanese). Archived from the original on June 4, 2023. Retrieved June 4, 2023.
- ^ "tri-Ace Company Sales". tri-Ace.co.jp. Retrieved July 19, 2008.
- ^ Matulef, Jeffrey (February 20, 2015). "Star Ocean developer tri-Ace acquired by Japanese mobile company". Eurogamer. Gamer Network. Retrieved February 21, 2015.
- ^ "Don't Worry, tri-Ace Will Keep Making Games For Consoles". Siliconera. March 9, 2015. Retrieved March 9, 2015.
- ^ "Report: Star Ocean Dev Tri-Ace Takes Major Fiscal Losses". Siliconera. October 6, 2022. Retrieved June 24, 2023.
- ^ "トライエース、22年6月期決算は経常損失6.2億円 前年2.4億円の黒字から赤字転落、債務超過に 『スターオーシャン6』開発 | gamebiz". gamebiz【ゲームビズ】 (in Japanese). Retrieved June 24, 2023.
- ^ "Tri-Ace Helped Out With Final Fantasy XIII-2". Siliconera. December 18, 2011. Archived from the original on January 8, 2012. Retrieved February 10, 2013.
- ^ Spencer (November 13, 2013). "NORA Won't Return For Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII". Siliconera. Archived from the original on December 6, 2013. Retrieved November 13, 2013.