2024 has been a challenging year for the video game industry, and it appears that Japanese developer Tose (a team that has worked on numerous Nintendo projects since the Famicom era and has also helped Square Enix over the years) has suffered financial losses as multiple projects have been canceled.
The co-development studio, which was involved in the Switch versions of Paper Mario and Crisis Core, reported a nine-month loss ¥367 million (about $2.28 million) in its third-quarter earnings report (which ran from September 1, 2023 to May 31, 2024) due to customers canceling projects due to “policy changes” and “other factors.”
Not only is Tose “one of Japan’s largest outsourcing game companies”, it has also been labeled a “ghost developer” – because it doesn’t always get credit for projects. This has changed over the years, however, as the official website lists at least a selection of the projects it has helped with (going back to the Game Boy generation).
While it has lost some projects and will not be able to make a profit, the aim is to now recover with a steady release of games that are still in active development. This news follows Square Enix cancelling several unannounced projects in May 2024Tose also developed the Legendary Starfy series and has worked on other games such as Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince, WarioWare: Move It!, Splatoon 2, and Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster.