Feature: 'Interview: Tose - Game Development Ninjas'

In an exclusive interview and one of today's main features, Gamasutra quizzes "ninja" developer Tose, one of the largest independent game creators in the world (1,000 employees, 1,100 SKUs created since 1979!), despite the fact that the company is almost unknown, apart from Nintendo IP Starfy. As is explained in the introduction to the intriguing story: "Tose doesn't like to take credit for their work, standing back while publishers or other developers take the praise (or criticism, as the case may be). The titles Tose will admit to working on (most of their portfolio, due to agreements with publishers, is confidential), include Sega Casio, SNK's Sasuke vs. Commander (1980 arcade game), Nightmare Before Christmas (GBA), Shrek: Reekin' Havoc and, Shrek: Hassle at the Castle (both GBA titles for TDK Mediactive), and a series of Nickelodeon licensed mobile games for THQ." When asked about this low-profile tactic, Koichi Sawada, director of China sales for Tose U.S., is amusingly "GS: How come we've never heard of you until right now? Koichi Sawada: Well we're based in Kyoto, right? So we're ninja. You can't find us! But in the past 26 years we've worked on 1,100 games. Including partial games." You can now read the full Gamasutra interview on the subject, including plenty more on this extremely low-profile company (no registration required, please feel free to link to this article from external websites).