D4 Enterprise

D4 Enterprise Co., Ltd.(株式会社D4エンタープライズ, Kabushiki-gaisha D4 Entāpuraizu; often shortened to D4E) is a Japanese video game publisher currently specializing in content delivery services like Project EGG, EGGY and PicoPico over the Internet. The company has also collaborated with Nintendo to re-release Neo Geo, MSX and arcade titles for the Wii, and MSX titles for the Wii U, as part of the Virtual Console services on both consoles.

Other products and services from D4 Enterprise include EGG Music, a digital music service, focused around soundtracks for older Japanese home computer games; AC-MALL, an online store selling reprints of older video games, soundtracks and other forms of merchandise; and 1chipMSX, a special updated model of the MSX home computer. D4 Enterprise also holds the copyright and trademarks to the game libraries of several defunct Japanese video game companies, including Compile, T&E Soft and Xtalsoft.

History

D4 Enterprise was founded on March 3, 2004, by former Bothtec Inc. employee, Naoto Suzuki. Suzuki had previously been involved with the creation and management of Project EGG - and D4 Enterprise was created in part due to declining interest in the running of that service on the part of Bothtec. D4 Enterprise and Bothtec then entered into an agreement to jointly manage and operate Project EGG, as well as Soft-City.com - the website that hosted Project EGG.

Later on, in September 2004, D4E would start its own game distribution service and entertainment website called "Amusement Center" (often shortened to AC), as a separate entity from its collaboration with Bothtec on Soft-City.com and Project EGG, although Project EGG would later be mirrored on the AC website. As part of the Amusement Center, AC-MALL was also created as a digital storefront for game reprints, books and other merchandise. In November 2004, D4E would launch a sub-section of Amusement Center called the "iTa-Choco Shop". The iTa-Choco Shop was a store focused around games by iTa-Choco Systems - the personal company of Kōji Sumii (also known by the pseudonym, Rasho), the creator of Bokosuka Wars. The iTa-Choco Shop was terminated on May 10, 2022. D4E would also launch another sub-section of Amusement Center called "Compile Station", dedicated to the works of former game publisher Compile. A selection of 40 free Compile games and a Madō Monogatari 4-koma webcomic drawn by Compile illustrator "Ichi" are available via Compile Station.

D4 Enterprise continued to jointly operate Soft-City.com, even after Bothtec divested their stake in the service to Gaiax Co. Ltd in early 2005. In August 2005, D4 Enterprise would establish EGG Music as a sub-service of Amusement Center, for the purpose of digitally distributing older video game soundtracks. EGG Music would go on to contain over 200 soundtracks, from over 100 different composers - including works by Ryu Umemoto and Yuzo Koshiro. In early 2006, D4E would collaborate with Internet Revolution Co. Ltd (a joint venture between Konami and Internet Initiative Japan) to provide the emulation service "i-revo games"; 150 titles were released on the service, with games from the Famicom, Super Famicom, PC Engine and MSX available. i-revo games was discontinued on March 31, 2011.

In August 2006, D4 Enterprise would announce their involvement with creating and distributing the 1chipMSX - a special miniature recreation of the MSX2, first shown off in October 2004 and originally created as a collaboration between ASCII Corporation and the MSX Association. The 1chipMSX would later be exhibited by D4E at Tokyo Game Show 2006, and pre-orders were opened on October 12, 2006. 1chipMSX finally released on December 11, 2006. Only 5000 units of the device were produced, with the last units being sold in a special campaign celebrating the 25th anniversary of the original MSX - in 2008. There were originally plans for Dutch manufacturer Bazix to distribute the 1chipMSX in the West, as the representative of the MSX Association outside of Japan; however licensing difficulties, disagreements between the involved parties and the transfer of the MSX trademark from MSX Association to MSX Licensing Corporation resulted in Bazix terminating their working relationship with MSX Association and 1chipMSX was never released outside of Japan.

On December 29, 2006, another sub-section of the Amusement Center site was opened - Falcom Museum, a service for distributing older Nihon Falcom titles and for compiling information related to all Falcom titles at the time. These older Falcom titles also became available on Project EGG at the same time. In 2007, D4E would establish a record label called EGG Music Records, to distribute physical editions of EGG Music albums. To date, over 30 physical albums have been released under the EGG Music Records imprint.

On September 18, 2007, Neo Geo titles started to become available on the Wii's Virtual Console service in Japan - provided by D4 Enterprise, distributing titles under licence from SNK Playmore. Neo Geo Virtual Console titles would later launch on October 5, 2007, in PAL regions and on October 8, 2007, in North America. Neo Geo games would not be added to the South Korean Virtual Console service. In 2008, D4 Enterprise brought the MSX versions of Aleste and Eggy to the Japanese Wii Virtual Console – although both would later be delisted in 2012. D4E would also distribute 13 Konami MSX titles for Wii Virtual Console in late 2009 and early 2010. Later on in 2012, D4E would also bring the arcade versions of Technōs Japan's Nekketsu Kōha Kunio-kun and Sunsoft's Ikki and Shanghai to Virtual Console Arcade on Wii – in Japan only. From 2013 onwards, D4E would also provide the MSX emulator for Virtual Console on Wii U- which was once again Japan-only. The Wii Virtual Console service was discontinued in all regions on January 30, 2019, and the Wii U Virtual Console was discontinued on March 27, 2023.

D4E started releasing apps for iOS in December 2008, starting with ports of old MSX games (including Aleste, Zanac and Nyanpi) but eventually also including original titles such as Jellyfish ip and Hachiko Guru Logi Coupon - the latter of which also receiving an Android port in 2013. On December 2, 2009, Snapdots (a reimagining of the 2001 Game Boy Advance title Guru Logi Champ by Compile) was released for DSiWare. In 2017, D4E would announce and release EGGY, a special version of Project EGG for the Yahoo! Games Game Plus service. Yahoo! Games Game Plus and EGGY were both discontinued in 2020. PicoPico, another emulation service for mobile devices, was first announced by D4E in 2018, before releasing for iOS in 2020 and Android in 2021. The upcoming EGG Console service was announced for Nintendo Switch on March 24, 2023, under the provisional name "Project EGG for Nintendo Switch". This service launched on September 28, 2023, with Relics being the first title.

IP Acquisition

D4 Enterprise has acquired the rights to the intellectual property (IP) of several Japanese games companies including from several that have gone out of business, with the intent to preserve their libraries and ensure that people can still enjoy their works. Their first acquisition came in November 2005, when it acquired the rights to Compile's game library from Aiky. D4E would later enter a licensing agreement with Compile Heart in 2010, allowing the latter company to use Compile's IP to create new titles. However, neither of these two agreements involved the Puyo Puyo franchise, as Compile had sold the rights for Puyo Puyo to Sega in 1998.[citation needed]

In October 2006, D4 Enterprise announced that it had negotiated a transfer of rights from BBMF Group Inc. for the library of Bothtec, Inc - the company that originally started Project EGG, and where D4E CEO Naoto Suzuki worked before he founded D4E. In 2010, D4E acquired the rights to the 1988 Data East game RoboCop - based on the movie of the same name. The IP rights to the library of HummingBirdSoft (including Laplace no Ma and the Deep Dungeon series) were acquired by D4 Enterprise in March 2013.

D4 Enterprise filed trademark applications for the logos of both T&E Soft (creators of the Hydlide series) and Xtalsoft (makers of Kalin no Tsurugi and the Phantom Heart series) in 2018, and later acquired the rights to the entire game libraries of both companies on March 4, 2019. By this time, D4E had also acquired the rights to the libraries of Cosmos Computer, System Sacom, Carry Lab and Winkysoft. On May 11, 2022, D4 Enterprise announced that it had signed an agreement with Laox to transfer the rights for the "Brain Media" brand name, and all video game IPs associated with the brand. However, D4E did not have access to the games and promotional materials to start distributing the titles on any of their services; so D4E also announced a crowdsourcing campaign to help preserve the game materials.

Games and products

Physical compilations and reprints

Project EGG

Project EGG(プロジェクトEGG, Purojekuto EGG; EGG stands for "Engrossing Game Gallery") is an emulation-based games content delivery service for Windows operating systems, focused around titles originally released for older Japanese home computers - such as NEC's PC-9801 or Fujitsu's FM-7 systems. Since 2010, the service has also included titles from home consoles (like the Famicom or Sega Mega Drive), as well as arcade games.

Users need to have an account registered with D4 Enterprise's "Amusement Center" website and pay a monthly fee to make use of the service - which is accessed via a desktop client called "EGG Launcher". New titles are added to the service every week, and paying subscribers automatically gain access to over 200 free titles, with more titles available for individual purchase. Some of the titles that have been re-released include: many of Compile's titles like the Zanac and Aleste games; SystemSoft games such as the Daisenryaku games; and Nihon Falcom titles, including multiple entries in the Dragon Slayer and Ys series. In total, over 1000 titles are currently available to play through Project EGG - with an additional 109 titles that were formerly on the service that have since been delisted.

While the name EGG is an acronym for "Engrossing Game Gallery", it also alludes to the mascot of the service, Eggy - originally from the 1985 Bothtec game of the same name.

History

The impetus behind the creation of the service was a concern about future generations losing access to older and less popular titles (which Project EGG describes as "cultural heritage"), as the original platforms and media that these titles were played on continued to age and eventually stop working entirely. Naoto Suzuki, an employee at Bothtec, Inc. at the time, along with some of his co-workers felt that there should be legal routes to allow easy access to these older titles, without having to resort to piracy or complicated setting-up of emulators. Therefore, Project EGG was designed to be "pick-up-and-play" and the subscription and client-based systems were implemented to assuage fears of the service promoting piracy.

Suzuki approached the Japan Computer Game Association (JCGA) and asked the game companies that make up the organisation for permission to re-issue titles from their back catalogues. The permission was granted and work began on creating the service. The initial line-up of titles was chosen from the libraries of the members of the JCGA, and the platforms were chosen based on how functional the emulators were; with PC-8801 having the most stable emulator and thus the most starting titles. Project EGG was first launched on November 24, 2001 by Bothtec as part of their Soft-City gaming website.

Suzuki would leave Bothtec in 2004 to found D4 Enterprise, which then entered into an agreement to jointly operate Soft-City and Project EGG with Bothtec. Later that year, D4 Enterprise would start its own game website, Amusement Center (shortened to AC), and a similar service to Project EGG, called "AC PLUS" (or just PLUS) was also made available. AC PLUS handled titles that were more difficult to manage with Project EGG's system - like titles from certain publishers, or game with prices above ¥1000. AC users later gained the ability to use an AC account to register for Project EGG instead of needing a Soft-City account. In early 2005, Bothtec transferred its stake in Soft-City.com and Project EGG to Gaiax Co. Ltd.

In August 2005, Project EGG expanded beyond only re-releasing games, with the introduction of EGG Music - a service for re-releasing game soundtracks for older Japanese video games. D4 Enterprise later became the sole operator of Soft-City.com and Project EGG, acquiring the rights from Gaiax on April 11, 2007; and soon thereafter combined Project EGG and AC PLUS - which at this point had been renamed to EGG Plus - into a single, unified subscription service. Soft-City and Amusement Center were also merged into one website later in the year, in September - with all Soft-City user accounts being migrated over to AC. On May 14, 2017, EGG: Music Direct was added to the service, which allowed Project EGG subscribers to use the EGG Launcher client to listen to the soundtracks of supported titles at any time, if the user had purchased said titles.

For the first 8 years, Project EGG was focused almost exclusively on titles from older Japanese home computers. However in 2010, D4E announced that console games and arcade games would be joining the service - starting in March of that year. Since then, a dozen arcade titles have been released - and games from 7 different home consoles have been made available.

As part of Project EGG's extended 21st anniversary celebrations, multiple new initiatives have been announced. Guidelines on allowing the creation and monetization of secondary game content on YouTube (such as let's plays) were announced on November 24, 2022 - as part of a collaborative endeavour with Kadokawa Corporation. Announced on March 3, 2023, Project EGG Creators is a special service created to allow for the distribution of newly created games and homebrew titles for retro consoles and computers on Project EGG.

EGG Console

On March 24, 2023 - as part of Project EGG's aforementioned 21st anniversary celebrations - a special version of Project EGG for the Nintendo Switch was announced - under the provisional name "Project EGG for Nintendo Switch". The name for this console version was later officially confirmed as EGG Console for Switch (EGGCONSOLE in International markets), and features MSX, MSX2, PC-8801, PC-8801mkIISR and PC-9801 games, with Relics for the PC-88 being the first title released on September 28, 2023, in Japan only. While Project EGG on PC requires both a subscription and a standalone payment to allow access to paid titles, EGG Console utilizes entirely standalone purchases from the Nintendo eShop. EGG Console was released in international markets starting on October 12, 2023, also featuring Relics as the label's debut title. EGG Console started to be available on Windows through Steam in February 25, 2026; having Hydlide 3 as its debut title on the storefront.

List of EGG Console releases

There are currently 94 titles released as part of the EGG Console lineup, 4 of which are no longer available for purchase:

EGGY

EGGY was an emulation-based games distribution service for the Yahoo! Games Game Plus platform - an initiative for promoting HTML5 games and Cloud gaming; which was compatible with Web browsers, iOS and Android. EGGY had a wide range of MSX, MSX2 and PC-9801 titles available, including HummingBirdSoft's Deep Dungeon and Microcabin's Xak: The Art of Visual Stage; and game save data could be transferred between different platforms freely. Like Project EGG, users needed to pay a monthly subscription fee to play these titles, but no further purchases were necessary for any individual titles afterwards. Also similarly to Project EGG, the service was named after the mascot "Eggy" from the Bothtec title of the same name.

It was originally announced and launched alongside the Yahoo! Games Game Plus platform, on July 18, 2017, with a library of 20 MSX titles. The subscription fee would later be lowered in December 2017. Yahoo! Games Game Plus - along with all content hosted on it, including EGGY - was discontinued on September 23, 2020.

List of EGGY games

There were 49 games on EGGY, which all became unavailable upon the termination of the service in 2020:

PicoPico

PicoPico (sometimes stylised as pico2) is an emulation-based games distribution service for iOS, iPadOS and Android mobile operating systems, released in 2020 and initially focused on Famicom titles - with Game Gear and MSX titles added to the service later in 2021. A paid monthly subscription (called Pico Plan) is required to access the full content of the app - although the app itself can be downloaded for free, and select titles are available without the subscription as part of the "Free Plan". Titles available include Data East's BurgerTime, T&E Soft's Hydlide and several titles from the Madō Monogatari series. It also features title music composed by Yuzo Koshiro.

Originally announced in 2018 for a 2019 release, PicoPico started out as a collaboration between D4 Enterprise and Dwango as part of Dwango's "experimental broadcast" functionality for its video sharing and livestreaming service Niconico. However, the release was delayed into 2020 and D4 Enterprise eventually acquired sole rights to the service in April 2020. In July 2020, D4 Enterprise entered into a partnership with canow Co. Ltd, to help assist with "live gameplay" on PicoPico.

PicoPico was first launched on October 16, 2020, with a starting library of 30 Famicom titles, and was initially only available for iOS and iPadOS devices. Features available at launch included game manuals, quick save functionality, video recording, online multiplayer for supported titles, Bluetooth controller support and an offline mode where paid subscribers can continue using the app for 24 hours even without being connected to the internet. Select MSX and Sega Game Gear titles started being added to the service from February 15, 2021, onwards. An update on April 29, 2021, added the ability for free users to access all paid titles, by watching advertisements in the app.

The Android version of PicoPico was released on July 27, 2021 - with a slimmed down feature set compared to its App Store counterparts. Save data and video sharing functionality was added to all versions of the app via an update on November 2, 2021, with the ability view and search through other players shared save data and videos in-app added later in November.

See also

• MSX
• Neo Geo
• Wii Virtual Console (Japan)
• Wii Virtual Console (North America)
• Wii Virtual Console (PAL regions)
• Wii U Virtual Console (Japan)

Notes

External links