Q-Games

Foundation

Q-Games was founded by Dylan Cuthbert, of British origin, who at Argonaut Software previously helped create Starglider and Starglider 2, and gave programming assistance to X and the first Star Fox for Nintendo. After Star Fox 2 was canceled, Argonaut's contract with Nintendo ended. Cuthbert found the experimentation with Star Fox 2 helpful in his career. Cuthbert left Japan and moved to the United States to work with Sony. At Sony, he worked on Blasto for the PlayStation. After this, Cuthbert moved back to Japan to work at Japan Studio, where, in early 1999, he developed the Duck in a Bath technical demo that showcased the PlayStation 2's power to early developers and publishers. Following that, he developed Pipo Saru 2001 and then left Sony to start Q-Games Ltd. in Kyoto in August 2001.

History

The studio's first few years were spent accumulating staff and developing behind-doors technology projects for a number of clients including Sony and Microsoft. At E3 2004, they showed two graphic technology demos for the PlayStation Portable and then internally began development on two games, one for the Game Boy Advance and one for the Nintendo DS. These titles were announced as Digidrive (part of the bit Generations series of puzzle games for the Game Boy Advance) and Star Fox Command respectively. Both were later released.

Following these projects, Q-Games began to collaborate with Sony Computer Entertainment, becoming a second-party studio partner, by developing the PixelJunk series of downloadable games for the PlayStation 3. They are available for download and purchase on the PlayStation Network Store worldwide. PixelJunk games are presented in 1080p full HD. PixelJunk made its worldwide debut on 11 July 2007 at E3 2007, held in Santa Monica, CA. At TGS 2009, Q-Games confirmed that it is extremely unlikely these games will ever appear on the Xbox 360.

Throughout its existence, Q-Games has continued to partner with multiple platform holders directly including Nintendo, Sony, and Google.

Q-Games have also worked with Nintendo again, releasing several games for the Nintendo DSi's DSiWare digital distribution service from 2009 to 2010. The studio would co-develop Star Fox 64 3D for the Nintendo 3DS with Nintendo EAD in releasing in 2011.

At Gamescom 2014, Q-Games announced The Tomorrow Children, an online adventure game that featured asynchronous multiplayer. The title was co-developed by Japan Studio and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment. The game launched in 2016 as a free to play title for the PlayStation 4, but was shut down by Sony after a year of operation.

Q-Games has also developed a number of titles exclusive for Apple Arcade including a new Frogger.

In 2021, it was announced that PixelJunk Raiders would be launching on Google Stadia. The title made use of the State Share feature to allow players to jump into other players game via a screenshot or video capture.