Jaleco

Jaleco Ltd (株式会社ジャレコ Kabushiki Kaisha Jareko) is the name of two different, but previously linked, Japanese video game companies that are now largely inactive and possibly defunct.

The original Jaleco Ltd was founded in 1974. In 2006, it decided to become a pure holding company by renaming itself Jaleco Holding and splitting its video game operations into a newly created subsidiary that took its former name of Jaleco Ltd. In 2009, Jaleco Holding sold Jaleco Ltd to Game Yarou and subsequently changed its own name to Emcom Holdings.

As a wholly owned subsidiary of Game Yarou, Jaleco Ltd operated independently and continued to trade under the Jaleco name until the bankruptcy of its parent company in 2014. Emcom Holdings quit the video game business in 2009, having branched out to other markets; it was delisted from the JASDAQ in 2013.

History

Logo before PCCW (1988-2001)

Jaleco was founded on October 3, 1974 as the Japan Leisure Co., Ltd. (株式会社ジャパンレジャー Kabushiki-gaisha Japan Rejā), a manufacturer of amusement equipment; its headquarters was in Setagaya-ku, Tokyo, Japan.[1] In 1982, the company started developing and manufacturing arcade video games. That year, the company shortened its brand name to Jaleco and formally changed its name to Jaleco Ltd. in 1983.

Jaleco was a video game company whose focus lay in arcade titles, as well as titles for the NES and other popular computer and video game consoles of the 1980s and 1990s, most notably the Bases Loaded series and Carrier. The U.S. arm of Jaleco was Jaleco USA based near Chicago in the town of Wheeling, Illinois.

2002-2006. This logo was first used by US division Jaleco Entertainment. When PCCW Japan changed its name back to Jaleco, it adopted the logo.

By 2000, Jaleco, still active in the development of arcade and console video games, hadn't produced any hit title in years and was in a struggling state. Its American division Jaleco USA had already left the arcade industry in 1993. On November 1, 2000, Jaleco was acquired by Hong-Kong company PCCW. Jaleco, renamed PCCW Japan, gave the PCCW Group a foothold in Japan. PCCW heavily restructured the company, shutting down Jaleco's arcade division and other non-profitable departments to focus on video games for consoles of the sixth generation era. PCCW Japan itself acquired on April 2001 the VR-1 Group which included VR-1 Entertainment, a U.S. developer of massively multiplayer online role playing games, to bring a more global focus to its current and future software endeavors. On October 2002, PCCW Japan merged Jaleco USA and VR-1 Entertainment to form Jaleco Entertainment, its new U.S. division that would be based in Buffalo, New York instead of Wheeling, Illinois. PCCW Japan reverted its name back to Jaleco in 2004.

The rechristened Jaleco continued to serve as the official Japanese subsidiary of the PCCW Group throughout 2004 and most of 2005; engaging itself in video gaming, music, web application and mobile phone content. However, on August 2005, PCCW sold Hyperlink Investments Group (PCCW's subsidiary that owned Jaleco) to Sandringham Fund SPC.

On May 31, 2006, Jaleco's board of directors (JASDAQ: 7954) opted for a change of name from Jaleco Ltd to Jaleco Holding Ltd and, in the process, spun off the video game division into a separate company that would take the name of Jaleco Ltd. Jaleco Holding became the name of the company that has existed since 1974, while Jaleco Ltd became the name of the new company that was established on July 3, 2006, as a wholly owned subsidiary of Jaleco Holding. The decision for the reorganization was based out on the fact that the original company had expanded in many activities beyond video gaming.

On October 2007, Hyperlink Investments Group sold its stock in Jaleco Holding to Game Yarou (an online game company) and to two different Korean companies: STIC Pioneer Fund and A2i Co Ltd. But in early 2008, Game Yarou divested itself from its interests in Jaleco Holding to pay off some of its own debts.

In 2008, Jaleco Holding dissolved two subsidiaries: FFBC Investment and J CONSULTING.

On January 15, 2009, Jaleco Holding sold Jaleco Ltd to Game Yarou, for ¥1 (US$0.01). However, Game Yarou assumed ¥700,000,000 ($7.736 million) of Jaleco Holding's ¥16,000,000,000 ($17.68 million) loan. Jaleco Holding spokespersons stated "an increasing competition in recent years in the video game market" as the reason for their retirement from the video game industry, and that risk factors for their profitability will be removed after their withdrawal.[2] Because Jaleco Ltd was created in 2006 as a legal company rather than a division, the right to use the Jaleco name was not affected by the selling of the company to Game Yarou. Jaleco Ltd produced mobile phone video games as well as online games for the Internet. On March 2, 2009, Jaleco Ltd revealed on its website that Ougon no Kizuna—a video game for the Wii—would be released on May 29, 2009.[3][4] In 2012 and 2013, towards the bankruptcy of parent company Game Yarou's, Jaleco licensed its old games (notably City Connection) to other companies. On May 21, 2014, Game Yarou was declared bankrupt by the Tokyo District Court. Since then, Jaleco has been dormant and its website is no longer active.

On April 2009, the original company, Jaleco Holding, changed again its name to Emcom Holdings. The Emcom group had been Jaleco Holding's most important division since 2008. The subsidiary Japan Central Real Estate was renamed Emcom Realty. Emcom Holdings focused on real estate, securities, technology and finance business. For the first time in more than 35 years, the original company was not involved in the video game or amusement industry. A series of acquisitions and quick expansion during the following years resulted in Emcom Holdings losing its viability. It was delisted from the JASDAQ in May 13, 2013 and, much like the new Jaleco Ltd, its website is now offline.

North America's division Jaleco Entertainment appears to have gone out of business since at least 2008. In 2005, the content of Jaleco Entertainment's website was replaced by a frontpage reading as "Home of Jaleco Entertainment" with no hyperlinks or other webpages.[5] The front page had the Jaleco Entertainment logo above the "Home of Jaleco Entertainment"; implying that Jaleco Entertainment was still in business at the time and was simply going through a hiatus period. Sometime in 2006, the website was briefly replaced by a message saying that the domain expired, but it was renewed a month later with again the "Home of Jaleco Entertainment" front page. As of December 2015, the jaleco.com domain seems to have been taken over by an entity other than its namesake.

Video games

Developed

Published only

Distributed only

Emcom Holdings subsidiaries

References

  1. ↑ Former headquarters of Jaleco.
  2. ↑ David Jenkins. "Jaleco Leaves Games Biz Due To 'Increasing Competition'". Gamasutra.
  3. ↑ http://www.jalecogames.co.jp/news/090302ougonnnokizuna__release.pdf
  4. ↑ http://www.ign.com/articles/2008/08/27/jaleco-announces-kizuna-for-wii
  5. ↑

External links

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