Cyber Front, Japanese publisher of Portal, Skullgirls, dissolved

Today, Cyber Front, a Japanese publisher which handled the Japanese releases of many Western games, announced its dissolution in a simple statement (PDF, Japanese) published to its website. Though little-known in the West, Cyber Front localized and published some very prominent Western titles in Japan, including Telltale Games' The Walking Dead and Valve's Portal franchise. Most recently, it had found success with Lab Zero's Skullgirls on the PlayStation Network. It was originally founded in 1998. According to the statement Cyber Front undertook management changes this past March. This coincides with a buyout by electronics firm Kaga Electronics. Kaga had originally purchased 51 percent of Cyber Front's stock in 2010. Kaga has long been active in the video game space -- it is the parent company of NES and Game Boy publisher Taxan, which operated in the U.S. from 1989 to 1991. Unfortunately, the brief statement suggests Cyber Front had trouble rebuilding its business -- which included development, localization, production, publishing, and distribution -- from that point forward. At a board meeting today, the decision to dissolve the company was made and immediately announced. Cyber Front released The Walking Dead at retail for PlayStation 3 and PC on December 5, and had at least one announced, upcoming game in its publishing pipeline: Operation Abyss, a Japanese-developed PlayStation Vita RPG due in January. The fate of Cyber Front's existing and upcoming game catalogue is, as of this writing, unknown.