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 (from September 1, 2023 to May 31, 2024) due to customer project cancellations due to “policy changes” and “other factors.”
In addition to being “one of Japan’s largest outsourcing game companies”, Tose has also been called a ‘ghost developer’ – because it is not always listed on projects. This has changed over the years, however, with the official website listing a selection of projects it has worked on (going back to the Game Boy generation).
While it has lost some projects and will not see any returns, it is now aiming to recover with a steady release of games that are still in active development. This news follows Square Enix canceling multiple unannounced projects in May 2024Tose also developed The Legendary Starfy and has worked on games such as Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince, WarioWare: Move It!, Splatoon 2 and Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster.