Hudson Soft
Final headquarters at Midtown Tower, Tokyo | |
Native name | 株式会社ハドソン |
|---|---|
Romanized name | Kabushiki gaisha Hadoson |
| Company type | Subsidiary |
| JASDAQ: 4822 (2000–2011) | |
| Industry | Video games |
| Founded | May 18, 1973 |
| Founders | Yuji Kudo Hiroshi Kudo |
| Defunct | March 1, 2012 |
| Fate | Merged with Konami Digital Entertainment |
| Successor | Konami Digital Entertainment |
| Headquarters | Midtown Tower, , |
Number of locations | 2 studios (2012) |
Key people | Takahashi Meijin Shinichi Nakamoto Shigeki Fujiwara Akira Sakuma Kazuhiko Uehara (President 2011‒2012) |
| Products | List of Hudson Soft games TurboGrafx-16 TurboExpress PC-FX |
| Total equity | ¥300 million (2011) |
| Owner | Shareholders
|
Number of employees | 421 (2011) |
| Parent | Konami (2011-2012) |
Hudson Soft Co., Ltd. was a Japanese video game company known for releasing numerous titles across video game consoles, home computers, and mobile phones. Headquartered in the Midtown Tower in Tokyo, it also maintained an office in the Hudson Building in Sapporo. Founded on May 18, 1973, Hudson initially focused on personal computer products before expanding into video game development, publishing, peripherals, and music production.
The company was best known for its series Bomberman, Adventure Island, Star Soldier, Bonk and Bloody Roar. It also developed games for other publishers, most notably the Mario Party series for Nintendo. Hudson partnered with NEC to create the TurboGrafx-16, TurboExpress, and PC-FX consoles, aiming to compete with Nintendo, Sega, and SNK, while continuing to release games on other platforms as a third-party developer.
Hudson Soft became a publicly traded company in 2000. In 2005, Konami acquired a 55% controlling stake in Hudson, later purchasing the company outright on April 1, 2011. On March 1, 2012, Hudson merged with Konami Digital Entertainment, which retains its game catalog and periodically re-releases Hudson’s classic titles.