Co-development studio Tose reports losses due to several cancelled games

Co-development studio Tose reported a nine-month loss of 367 million yen ($2.28 million) due to many projects canceled by its clients.

Founded in 1979, Tose has a long history as a studio specializing in working with other publishers and developers.

However, in its recent third quarter earnings report covering the period from September 1, 2023 to May 31, 2024, the developer states that its digital entertainment segment suffered a significant decline in profits, resulting in an overall loss for the period (as reported by Automaton).

Tose has gained a reputation over the decades as a “ghost developer”, due to his general policy of avoiding taking credit for games he worked on.

It is therefore virtually impossible to create a comprehensive list of games developed by Tose, especially those made in the 80s and 90s, as many of them make no mention of the company or its staff.

Lately, however, the studio’s work has been recognized more frequently: its website now lists some of the titles it has worked on recently, including the remake of Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster, Crisis Core: Final Fantasy 7 Reunion, Scarlet Nexus, WarioWare: Move It, and Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince.

But since Tose relies mainly on work commissioned from other publishers, it is now suffering the repercussions of their financial difficulties.

As such, she notes that several projects she was working on have now been cancelled due to her clients’ policy changes, and she will not be able to recoup profits from those games due to their cancellation.

The company cut its full-year sales forecast by 12.5%, saying it expects things to remain uncertain for some time, but noted that it is working to improve its project management and plans to regain momentum by regularly releasing the games it still has in active development.

While Tose wouldn’t specify which clients canceled the projects it was working on, the studio is a frequent collaborator of Square Enix, which confirmed in May that it had canceled a number of unannounced game projects because they didn’t fit with its new strategy.