Overview
Career Soft (キャリアソフト) was a small Japanese game studio that was founded by former members of the Langrisser development team at Masaya, a division within NCS Corporation. The team was not formed by the creators of the original Langrisser on the Mega Drive but by the group that developed Langrisser: Hikari no Matsuei, a remake of the first game for the PC-Engine CD, who would go on to make all future entries. However, due to organizational reform at NCS, the team left Masaya and independently established Career Soft on June 6, 1996 with Langrisser III being the team's last game developed at NCS. Langrisser IV would be the first game to feature Career Soft's name as they continued to work with NCS on the franchise until the fifth entry was published in 1998.
Afterwards, Career Soft moved on to develop the Growlanser series with Atlus in 1999. On October 29, 2001, Career Soft was purchased by Atlus where they continued to work on the Growlanser franchise as a wholly owned subsidiary. Matsuo Iwata, Atlus's president at the time, also took over as the company's representative director which was a role previously held by Michio Shibuya. However, in 2004, a majority of Career Soft's staff were merged into Atlus's main development teams. Key members such as producer Shinjiro Takata became Atlus employees in February of 2004 and the remnants of Career Soft became Apollo Corporation on August 12, 2004.
After being assimilated into Atlus, Career Soft's name no longer appeared in the credits of any video game with the last two installments in the Growlanser series instead featuring a logo for "Team Career." Since Growlanser VI was published in 2007, the "Career" name has fallen out of use entirely but Shinjiro Takata has continued to produce games at Atlus with many former Career Soft employees, such as the Devil Survivor series and Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE. Individual former Career Soft members have also helped create other Atlus titles ranging from Radiant Historia to even Shin Megami Tensei V,
Career Soft Staff
![Photo of Shinjiro Takata (left) from 1997 [4].](https://www.giantbomb.com/a/uploads/scale_small/9/97089/3327177-t2.jpg)
Photo of Shinjiro Takata (left) from 1997 [4]. Career Soft was a small studio that contained less than 10 employees. The company was overseen by Michio Shibuya, a former executive producer at Masaya that oversaw the Langrisser series. Shinkiro Takata also served as either the director or producer on all of Career Soft's titles and was a key figure at the company. Once Career Soft was merged into Atlus, all of the company's staff transitioned into creating games at Atlus with only Taiji Hida and Michio Shibuya no longer appearing in credits after the release of Growlanser VI.
Atlus Games Developed by the Former Career Soft Team
Career Soft as a studio disappeared in 2004 but the staff continued to work on various games within Atlus. For example, Shinjiro Takata is currently the manager of "Creative Department 1st Production" which is responsible for developing the Shin Megami Tensei series. However, the games listed below are Atlus games where a large number of former Career Soft employees worked on the titles with Shinjiro Takata.
Team Career
Atlus
External Links
References
- About what's going on now with Carrier Soft, the Company that once Developed Langrisser and Growlanser (Meat Udon, 2019).
- Career Soft Information (Megaten Staff Wiki).
- Atlus Press Release about Acquiring Career Soft (Atlus, 2001).
- Sega Saturn Magazine (February 28, 1997, Page 57).
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