Tose Software

About

Tose is a Japanese developer that specializes in outsourcing work for various publishers and developers around the world. While it does have some official credits attached to the Starfy and Game & Watch Gallery franchises, Tose typically prefers to go uncredited, granting it the nickname of the "ninja developer."

Tose is a Japanese developer that was founded in 1979 as a spin-off from Toa Seiko, a Japanese electronics and technology development firm. Specializing predominantly in outsourced work from other development companies in both Japan and overseas, although it is only officially credited on a handful of games, most notably all of the Game & Watch Gallery games, as well as the Starfy franchise, which is its own creation, Tose is believed to have been involved in the development of 1100-plus games for numerous platforms in various capacities over the years ranging from graphics support to full development. However, since it routinely declines to be credited in most of the games to which they contribute work, it has come to be known as a "ninja developer," with portions of its exact resume largely being made apparent either by clients that make its hiring known, such as Square-Enix for Enix/Dragon Quest franchise-related ports, or by forensic work done on both the games themselves and external resources related to the company. The ways involved in the latter method include financial reports and ROM hacking, among other means. The developer's secrecy extends as far as its work force, with even its upper management often preferring anonymity over having their names made known. Sporting over 1000 employees, Tose is one of the world's largest developers that, with one exception in the form of the PSP Network title Susume Tactics, doesn't also do publishing work. In addition to the main office in Japan, it also maintains branch offices in the United States and China.