The story
The company was founded in January 1988 and incorporated as Arc Co., Ltd. in May. The company spent early years as a contract developer for Sega, Sammy, and Banpresto. It consisted at the time of around eight developers; most of whom had previously worked at Sega including founder Minoru Kidooka. It was renamed Arc System Works in 1991. In 1992 they developed a game for the Famicom called Pizza Pop!. The company produced a series of Sailor Moon video games for publisher Angel including Bishōjo Senshi Sailor Moon S: Jōgai Rantō!? Shuyaku Sōdatsusen which was the first fighting game it produced.
It published its first title in 1995 which was Exector for the PlayStation.
On June 11, 2015, the company acquired all intellectual properties of Technōs Japan, such as Double Dragon and Kunio-kun, from Million Co., Ltd. Even prior to its acquisition of Million's library, the company had been the publisher of Technōs' video games for Virtual Console in Japan. Following the transaction, the company took the publishing duties from Aksys Games for Virtual Console releases in North America, though some Technōs games were already published by Arc System Works.
On February 6, 2017, the company acquired the rights to the Jake Hunter, Theresia, Nazo no Jikenbo, and Koneko no Ie series from publisher WorkJam. On November 2, 2017, the company announced the establishment of a North American branch in Torrance, California, known as Arc System Works America, Inc.
In July 2024, Arc System Works opened a European branch in Paris, France. In October 2026, the company revealed that they would be opening a new studio in Shinjuku on November 2 of that year. The new studio will help Arc System Works develop a new fighting game title.
From Wikipedia’s article on Arc System Works, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4