Hudson Soft: History and Key Facts

Hudson Soft Co., Ltd. was a Japanese video game developer that released 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 and an American subsidiary in San Mateo, California. 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 produced Bomberman, Adventure Island, Star Soldier, Bonk, and Bloody Roar. It also developed games for other publishers, such as 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, SNK, Atari, Philips, and Sony 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.

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