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Kairosoft (Japanese: カイロソフト, Hepburn: Kairosofuto) is a Japanese video game developer located in Tokyo, Japan that has created a number of simulation games for cell phones, PCs, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and Xbox consoles. Founded in 1996, the company has developed a number of mobile games for the Japanese market and has found great success in porting them to the modern iOS and Android operating systems. The company was ranked 30th in Pocket Gamer's "top 50 developers of 2012" list.

History

Kairosoft was founded as a dōjin games developer in 1996, and is currently located in the Nishi-Shinjuku district of Tokyo with only nine employees. They started out developing simulation games for the Windows platform, the first of which was released in 1996 and simulated a used bookstore, and another example was the original Game Dev Story released in 1997, with a sequel released in 2001. In 2001, Kairosoft switched to developing mobile simulation games for the Japanese cell phone market, which was much more developed than America's. The company was incorporated in September 2007, and launched a new website on November 4, 2008.

With the release of Game Dev Story for iOS and Android in 2010, Kairosoft found itself a large hit, which reached the top ten in iPhone app sales in its first week. Kairosoft continued to port over games that it had previously developed for other platforms. Pocket Gamer ranked Kairosoft 30th on its "top 50 developers of 2012" list, calling Kairosoft games a "genre in their own right" but noting that they still were mostly a niche in the market.

Games

English games for WildTangent

Mobile games available in English

Computer games available in English

Untranslated games

Mobile

• Departure!! Shipping Freighter (Android and Keitai only)
• Dragging Cat Rebel
• Excitement! Manga Dojo (iOS and Keitai only)
• Friends Entertainment Building
• Game Center Club
• Good Ramen Museum ~National Hen~
• Manga Path
• Munch Munch Kairo-kun
• Outdoor Excavation Company (Keitai only)
• Piko Piko! Game Expo (Keitai only)
• Prestigious Pocket Academy 1 (Android and Keitai only)
• Royal Gallery Academy (Keitai only)
• Social Game Dev Dream (Android and Keitai only)
• Start!! Hero Base
• Wai Wai! Game Dealer (iOS and Keitai only)
• Witch Quest

PC

• Bookstore Story
• Game Developing Countries
• Game Developing Countries II DX
• The Narrow Path to Manga
• The Secondhand-book Store
• The Secondhand-book Store 2

References

1. ^ Brown, Mark (August 5, 2011). "Kairosoft: Game Dev Story's game dev story". Wired. Archived from the original on August 3, 2014. Retrieved May 11, 2012.
2. ^ Jordan, Jon (February 26, 2012). "The PocketGamer.biz top 50 developers of 2012: 30 to 21". Pocket Gamer. Archived from the original on May 2, 2012. Retrieved May 11, 2012.
3. Lada, Jenni (June 1, 2012). "Important Importables: Kairosoft". Technology Tell. Retrieved June 1, 2015.
4. Nicholson, Brad (November 30, 2010). "'Game Dev Story 2' Coming To iOS, But Not 'Soon'". Touch Arcade. Retrieved May 11, 2012.
5. Cowan, Danny (October 19, 2010). "Top-Grossing iTunes Apps: Cartoon Wars 2, Game Dev Story Enter Charts". Gamasutra. Retrieved May 11, 2012.
6. Ronson, Mark. "Kairosoft Finally Banging Off Anime Studio Story As #1 on the WildTangent Market!". WildTangent. Retrieved June 26, 2016.
7. Germanotta, Stefani. "Kairosoft Mega Mall Story Game Appears With Banner For The First Time on WildTangent!". TechRadar. Retrieved August 5, 2012.
8. Landis, Dave. "The Next Venture of Kairosoft on WildTangent Appears in Asia!". GregToDiffer. Retrieved June 7, 2013.
9. "This Week's Japanese Game Releases". Gematsu. Retrieved July 10, 2020.

External links

• Official website
• Kairosoft's original website, with PC game downloads (in Japanese)

• Software companies based in Tokyo
• Japanese companies established in 1996
• Video game companies established in 1996
• Video game companies of Japan
• Video game development companies