[chfuji]

Over at 1up.com, Sam Kennedy posted an article about a Japanese company called Tose who apparently has had quite a hand in a number of games. You can read the article here.

Personally, I'm not sure how I feel about the idea that a game I may have bought or played wasn't made by who was listed on the box. Until I'd read this article I honestly had no idea that anyone was doing this. What're your thoughts?

[Local Area Network]

As long as they aren't responsible for companies like Ocean stealing ideas over the internet and making cheap games about long-tongued lizards (apparently happened to a friend of mine).

[parasoul]

That was an interesting article.

My thoughts: I have no problem with companies outsourcing their work to companies like Tose. The publishers take risks dealing with outside companies like this. If the games end up being bad it doesn't hurt the Tose name; it hurts the publisher's name. If the games end up being good Tose gets no credit and the publisher's name becomes more respected. Tose's mission is basically to get rich working for all companies and not take credit for any game, good or bad.

This makes me wonder though...does EA really suck as bad as it seems or is Tose making all those poorly designed and even more poorly tested games?

[Urban Xperience]

I never saw that coming... this has really opened my eyes!

[Bahamut]

Interesting read. Now, they need to start an American branch.

[Yamato2299]

Stealth in game design? Interesting concept to think about.

[suzumebachi]

1up.com is dead to me. They can rot in hell, every last one of them. Fascist bastards they are.

[Bahamut]

Originally Posted by suzumebachi

1up.com is dead to me. They can rot in hell, every last one of them. Fascist bastards they are.

Haha, feel my hate! I remember getting pissed off because they blocked the ISPs I was using (i.e. AOL, my undergrad college connection).

[The Damned]

I wouldn't be surprised at all about this. It's well known that in animation, any one anime studio will part out scenes to other studios. They do this because the scene isn't as "important" as others, or they need something special done with it.

It makes sense. Don't have the time or staff to do the battle engine? Hire someone else to do it.

[Guy In Rubber Suit]

Originally Posted by parasoul

This makes me wonder though...does EA really suck as bad as it seems or is Tose making all those poorly designed and even more poorly tested games?

No, it's all the other developers under EA's umbrella. EA owns a lot of various game developers or has contracts with them.



This article was interesting, but for some reason, I got the impression that Tose is some sort of sinister evil corporation who must be stopped. Whatever, Tose has a very good buisness plan going on and it's particularly common now to have assests outsourced. I know that there are companies out there that specialize in cinematics only, or just concept art.