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Cygames Establishes New 'Cymusic' Subsidiary

Game developer Cygames announced on Friday that it established the new subsidiary company Cymusic on May 28. The new company will focus on music and video planning, production, sales, promotion, and artist management.

The new subsidiary will collaborate with Cygames to develop in both the game and music industries. Cygames noted the continuing rise of smartphone capabilities, including being able to play high quality music, as a reason for establishing the new subsidiary. The company also noted that music is a key element in many of its games.

Cygames was established in 2011, and the company has produced games such as Rage of Bahamut and Granblue Fantasy. Cygames established an anime division in March 2015 and the anime production subsidiary Cygames Pictures in April 2016. The company has worked on anime productions inspired by its games including Rage of Bahamut Genesis, Rage of Bahamut: Virgin Soul, and Granblue Fantasy the Animation. The game developer has also invested in production committees for television and theatrical anime such as Yuri!!! on Ice and In This Corner of the World. Cygames' Uma Musume Pretty Derby franchise has inspired a currently-airing television anime, with a game planned for release this year.

Cygames' parent company CyberAgent established the CA-Cygames Anime Fund in June 2017, which is investing 3 billion yen (about US$27.3 million) in anime IP through the fund. Cygames and publisher Kodansha formed a business partnership to launch the new Cycomi manga label in May 2017. The company announced a partnership with Nintendo to develop a new smartphone RPG titled Dragalia Lost in April. As part of the partnership, Nintendo acquired 5% of Cygames' issued stock.

Source: Cygames' official website, Animation Business Journal (Tadashi Sudo)