T&E Soft
Native name
株式会社ティーアンドイーソフト
Kabushiki-Gaisha Tīandoīsofuto
TypeKabushiki gaisha
FoundedOctober 14, 1982[1]
("old company")
January 21, 2008[2]
("new company")
DefunctJanuary 2013
("new company")
FateMerged with Spike Chunsoft
HeadquartersNagoya, Japan
Websitewww.tes.co.jp (archived)
www.tandesoft.co.jp (archived)
daikokuya-ghd.jp

T&E Soft Incorporated (株式会社ティーアンドイーソフト, Kabushiki-Gaisha Tīandoīsofuto) was a Japanese-based video game developer founded in 1982.[3] Although they have made games with a wide variety of genres, they are primarily known for their action role-playing, golf and puzzle video games.[4]

The original company exists today under the name of Daikokuya Global Holding Co., Ltd but is not currently engaged in game development.[5] A company named Deep Co., Ltd. acquired T&E Soft's trademark rights on April 22, 2005, to continue game development which would go on until January 2013.

History

Founded in 1982, T&E Soft Co., Ltd was initially named after the founder's older brother Toshiro Yokoyama and his younger brother Eiji Yokoyama, but later changed the abbreviation to "Tri & Exciting" and eventually "Technology & Entertainment".

T&E Soft started activities by selling games for NEC's PC-6001 series. Beginning in 1983, it developed games for multiple models other than the PC-6001. In December 1983, T&E Soft published its own magazine to promote its products and by January 1985 launched its newsletter that would last until July 1990. In October 1990, Xtalsoft was merged with T&E Soft and became T&E SOFT Osaka Development Department.

The company became famous for its 8-bit personal computer games including the Hydlide series. It entered the home video game console in March 1986 with the in-house development of the Family Computer software Hydlide Special which was released by Toshiba EMI. Since the success of the Super Famicom software Harukanaru Augusta, released in April 1991, T&E Soft gradually moved away from personal computers to focus on its titles for video game consoles. At some point, Square founder Masafumi Miyamoto was the majority shareholder of T&E Soft.[6]

In May 2002, T&E Soft Corporation changed its name to D Wonderland Inc.[3]

In April 2005, Deep Co., Ltd. acquired the trademark rights of the T & E Soft name. In January 2006, Digital Golf Co., Ltd. absorbed Deep Co., Ltd. and established a game development branch in Nagoya under the brand name of T&E Soft.

The development department of Digital Golf in Nagoya was eventually split off into its own company T&E Soft Co. , Ltd on January 21, 2008. The following week on January 30, Games Arena Co., Ltd. (a subsidiary of Dwango Co., Ltd.) announced that it would acquire all issued shares of T&E Soft Co., Ltd.

Chunsoft and Spike, which Games Arena had both previously acquired on individual basis, merged in April 2012 to form Spike Chunsoft. The new T&E Soft Co., Ltd was absorbed and merged with Spike Chunsoft in January 2013. (Games Arena had itself dissolved in June 2012).

In January 2015, D Wonderland (the "old" T&E Soft) changed its company name to Daikokuya Global Holding Co., Ltd.[7][8]

On March 4, 2019, D4 Enterprise announced that it has acquired the intellectual property rights of the T&E Soft game content.[9]

Games published

3DO

Computers

Game Boy

Mega Drive/Genesis

MSX

PlayStation

Super NES/Super Famicom

Virtual Boy

Games developed

3DO

  • Pebble Beach Golf

Game Boy

Genesis/Mega Drive

MSX

Famicom/NES

Nintendo 64

Nintendo DS

PC

PlayStation

PlayStation 2

Saturn

Super NES/Super Famicom

Virtual Boy

References

  1. ↑ "T&E Soft Company Overview". Archived from the original on February 2, 1999.
  2. ↑ "T&E Soft Company Profile". Archived from the original on September 28, 2012.
  3. 1 2 Kyodo News International, Inc. (April 1, 2002). "Insider trading complaint filed over Disney software deal". TheFreeLibrary.com. Retrieved May 10, 2015.
  4. ↑ "T&E Soft Games". IGN. Archived from the original on November 5, 2012. Retrieved May 10, 2015.
  5. ↑ "会社情報 | 大黒屋グローバルホールディング - Daikokuya Global Holding 公式サイト".
  6. ↑ "Disney, T&E in online games tieup". January 16, 2001.
  7. ↑ "当社の商号変更に関するお知らせ" (PDF). www.daikokuya-ghd.jp (in Japanese). September 6, 2016. Archived from the original (PDF) on September 6, 2016.
  8. ↑ "D Wonderland Inc". December 27, 2015. Archived from the original on December 27, 2015.
  9. ↑ "株式会社D4エンタープライズ、地位継承済ゲームソフトウェア・コンテンツのご案内". D4エンタープライズ. March 4, 2019.
  10. ↑ Koyama, Yusuke (June 2, 2023). History of the Japanese Video Game Industry. Springer Nature. p. 35. ISBN 978-981-99-1342-8.
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