Hot-B (defunct)

About

A Japanese game development studio that operated in the 80s and early 90s, best known for their fishing games.

Hot-B was established in 1983, starting out as the software planning department of an advertising agency called First Farmers. A short time later, the home computer boom kicked off in Japan, giving Hot-B a place to ply their trade before the Famicom took off.

They are perhaps best known for their NES-era fishing games, to the point where legend had it that the "B" in their name stood for "bass".

On July 23, 1993, Hot-B released a SNES RPG, Ancient Magic: Bazoe! Mahou Sekai. Exactly one day later, they declared bankruptcy. Later that year, former staff formed Starfish and acquired all of their previous studio's IPs.

A US publishing subsidiary was formed in 1988, which dramatically outlived its' parent company. Their last release was in 2005.