Ragnarok Online Publisher Gungho Buys Game Arts

Author: by Brandon Sheffield, Simon Carless

Japanese-headquartered online game publisher (Ragnarok Online) and developer Gungho, which recently announced that its parent Softbank-affiliated company had acquired Ragnarok Online developer Gravity Corp, has made another significant developer acquisition. This time, Gungho itself has announced that it is buying a majority share of Japanese Grandia developer Game Arts' stock from Yoichi Miyaji, president and representative director of the company. Game Arts was founded in 1985, and, as noted above, it is principally known for its Grandia RPG series, which has sold more than 2 million units worldwide, and which has recently been published by RPG giant Square Enix. Gungho had already signed an agreement with Game Arts to develop a Grandia Online MMORPG for the PC, and with Gungho's other major MMO title Ragnarok Online already a leading Japanese MMO contender, Gungho was clearly keen to assume full control over Grandia Online to attempt to shepherd it to similar success. Game Arts' acquisition will conclude on October 27, according to Gungho, and the company cites industry expansion into online and mobile gaming as the primary reasons for the acquisition. Before the acquisition, Yoichi Miyaji had 35.2% of Game Arts' shares, Gungho had 11.93％, as did Connect Technology, and Square Enix had 11.46% of the developer's shares.