Sora Ltd.

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Sora Ltd.
Native name
有限会社ソラ
TypeYūgen gaisha
IndustryVideo games
FoundedSeptember 30, 2005; 15 years ago (2005-09-30)
Tokyo, Japan
FounderMasahiro Sakurai
HeadquartersIidabashi, Tokyo, Japan
Key people
Masahiro Sakurai
Michiko Sakurai[citation needed]
Number of employees
2

Sora Co. Ltd. (Japanese: 有限会社ソラ, Hepburn: Yūgen-gaisha Sora) is a Japanese video game company founded by Masahiro Sakurai and Michiko Sakurai[citation needed]. Sora is not a development company, and only acts as an agency for the two to proceed with contracts with publishers, with Masahiro working mainly as director and Michiko as UI designer. Due to having only two members, Sora works with other development companies which act as the lead developer while Sakurai directs the employees of those companies. Super Smash Bros. series (from Brawl onwards), Kid Icarus: Uprising and Meteos are some of the projects in which they were involved.

History[]

After years of working for development company HAL Laboratory, Masahiro Sakurai and his wife Michiko Sakurai decided to quit HAL to work as freelancers with their own company. Sora was built as an agency that would contract them as freelancers to different companies. His first project under Sora was Meteos with Q Entertainment. Nintendo's Satoru Iwata hired Sakurai, someone 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.

On 18 February 2009, Nintendo announced the formation of Project Sora, a subsidiary created to develop a new video game, which would be directed by Sakurai. The development group was located in Iidabashi, Tokyo. The company was officially formed on 22 January 2009, 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 of Kid Icarus: Uprising with a staff of 30 developers (most of whom were recruits Nintendo hired for the development of Super Smash Bros. Brawl), with more staff being recruited during the development process. Kid Icarus: Uprising was released in March 2012 for the Nintendo 3DS.[1][2] Project Sora ceased operations on June 30. The official Project Sora website announced: "The company was dissolved on June 30th, 2012. Thank you very much for your patronage so far. This website will be closed on July 31st."[3] Bandai Namco Studios would collaborate with Sora Ltd. for the development of Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U[4] and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Both games were published by Nintendo.

List of games developed[]

Year released Title Publisher Developed with Platform
2005 Meteos Nintendo Q Entertainment Nintendo DS
2008 Super Smash Bros. Brawl Game Arts Wii
2012 Kid Icarus: Uprising Project Sora Nintendo 3DS
2014 Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U Bandai Namco Studios Nintendo 3DS
Wii U
2018 Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Nintendo Switch

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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