Level-5

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LEVEL-5 Inc.

Type	Private
Founded	October 1998
Headquarters	Fukuoka, Japan
Key people	Akihiro Hino, President and CEO
Industry	Video Game Industry
Products	Shirokishi Monogatari Professor Layton series Rogue Galaxy Dark Cloud series
Employees	120 (as of Oct. 2006)
Website	http://www.level5.co.jp/

Level-5 (株式会社レベルファイブ, Kabushiki Gaisha Reberu Faibu^?) is an independent video game developer based out of Fukuoka, Japan. The company, which currently employs about 120 individuals, was founded in October 1998 by Akihiro Hino after he departed from the now defunct Japanese developer Riverhillsoft. Hino designs, plans and produces all of Level-5's games, as well as serving as both President and CEO of the company.

Since its inception, Level-5 has enjoyed a very close relationship with Sony Computer Entertainment, with most of their titles funded by and produced in conjunction with the publisher. For the future, Hino has stated that Level-5 will focus the majority of its resources on the PlayStation 3, SCE's next-generation console, as well as striving to self-publish more of their own titles.

1 History
2 Games
3 Critical Reception
4 External links

History

Dark Cloud.

Dark Chronicle (Dark Cloud 2).

Level-5's first full scale production was the action RPG Dark Cloud, developed under contract by Sony Computer Entertainment originally for the Japanese launch of the PlayStation 2 in March of 2000. The title however was delayed just prior to the PS2 launch to allow for further development, and eventually released in Japan on December 14 2000, and elsewhere in 2001. The game was an immediate success for the company, selling just under a million units worldwide. Work immediately began on a pseudo-sequel entitled Dark Chronicle (Dark Cloud 2 in North America), that while not quite as successful as the first title, still enjoyed immense critical acclaim and sold over half a million units worldwide.

Midway through 2002 the company enjoyed a substantial boost in recognition as they began development on three very high profile titles:

True Fantasy Live Online for Microsoft, an MMORPG which was to become one of the premier titles for the Xbox and Xbox Live service in Japan (and unfortunately was abruptly canceled in 2004).
Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King for Enix (later Square Enix), who had handpicked Level-5 to develop the title under the supervision of famed designer Yuji Horii and his team at Armor Project.
Rogue Galaxy, the studio's third RPG for Sony Computer Entertainment, with a larger budget and more creative freedom than their previous productions with the publisher.

In just four short years, Level-5 went from small startup studio to one of the premier RPG developers in Japan, and have since enjoyed immense critical and commercial success. They recently released Professor Layton and the Mysterious Village in Japan, their first self-published title, and their first title for the Nintendo DS, which has since enjoyed significant commercial success, shipping more than 500,000 copies to retail. Level-5 currently has four titles in development, three of which for the Nintendo DS. The two remaining entries in the Professor Layton trilogy, Professor Layton and Pandora's Box and the as-yet-untitled third chapter, and Dragon Quest IX: Hoshizora no Mamoribito, the first main entry in the venerable series to debut on a handheld. The bulk of the staff however, including the chief designers and artists, are currently hard at work on Shirokishi Monogatari, an original RPG for the PlayStation 3.