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CREST Acquires Utawarerumono Developer Aquaplus
posted on by Crystalyn Hodgkins
CREST announced on Friday that it has acquired the video game development company AQUAPLUS, and AQUAPLUS is now a subsidiary of the company.
CREST also announced that it is merging with SANETTY Produce and QBIST on February 1, and the new company after the merger will be called HIKE. SANETTY Produce handles production of "2.5D" stage events of anime and games. QBIST is a company that creates graphics, promotional videos, websites, manuals, and webtoons for video games.
AQUAPLUS is known for producing visual novels and other games such as Utawarerumono, To Heart, Tears to Tiara, and White Album, all of which have inspired television anime. Some of its most notable releases include Utawarerumono: Mask of Deception and Utawarerumono: Mask of Truth, both sequels to the original Utawarerumono game. The company most recently released the Monochrome Mobius: Rights and Wrongs Forgotten (Monochrome Mobius: Toki no Taika) game in English, Japanese, and Traditional Chinese on Steam on September 8. The game also shipped in Japan on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 on September 8. The game celebrates the 20th anniversary of the Utawarerumono franchise.
AQUAPLUS appointed Minoru Noda as the company's new CEO in February. The company made the appointment so that former AQUAPLUS president Naoya Shimokawa could focus on game and product development. Shimokawa is now the company's chief operating officer.
CREST is an entertainment planning, production, and human resource management company. Masataka Mikami founded the company in March 2018 as a content production company. Mikami previously worked as a producer at such companies as 5pb., Polygon Pictures, Frontier Works, and TOHO. CREST founded the digital animation studio 100Studio (pronounced "One Double Studio") in June 2021.
