Entertainment Software Publishing (エンターテインメント・ソフトウェア・パブリッシング), or ESP, is a computer game publisher. It was created in 1997, primarily as a support company for the developer studios that made up GD-NET (Game Developers Network). ESP took the burdens of public relations and sales out of the hands of game studios. Public relations is the art and science of building relationships between an organization and its key publics. ...

The companies that participated in financing ESP's creation include many GD-NET member companies: Game Arts, Treasure Co. Ltd, Alfa System, Quintet, Sting, Neverland Company, CSK Research Institute, Bits Laboratory, Japan Art Media, and Onion Egg, and also Kadokawa Shoten, Media Works, Bandai and CSK Venture Capital. Game Arts is a Japanese video game developer. ... Treasure Co. ... Quintet is a videogame developer that created games as ActRaiser, ActRaiser 2, Soul Blazer, Illusion of Gaia, Terranigma, Robotrek and Granstream Saga among others. ... Sting is a relatively obscure game development studio. ... CRI Middleware Co. ... Japan Art Media, or JAM, is a Japanese video game development studio founded in 1989. ... Kadokawa Shoten Publishing Co. ... MediaWorks, Inc. ... This article is about the Japanese toy manufacturer. ...

There were two conciderations in the background of ESP's creation:

The first concideration was that after the debut of the 'next generation consoles' - the Sega Saturn and the Sony PlayStation, factors such as increased visual detail and higher quality music resulted in a sudden increase in costs to developing studios. This mainly burdened studios that only had mid-level funding. The GD-NET companies proposed a plan that would allow them to focus their resources on development rather than production and promotion. They created ESP as a sales and public relations outlet. The Sega Saturn (Japanese: セガサターン, Sega Saturn), is a video game console of the 32-bit era. ... For other versions of PlayStation, please see PlayStation (disambiguation) The PlayStation is a video game console of the 32/64-bit era, first produced by Sony Computer Entertainment in the mid-1990s. ...

The second concideration was a factional predicament. ESP was created with the objective of "suppling original works for the Sega Saturn platform", but Square's (now Square-Enix) move to the PlayStation, Enix's setbacks in Saturn development, and the withdrawal of third-party support symbolized by the breakup of Time Warner Interactive, brought the Saturn's already poor position into the foreground. Square Enix (Japanese: スクウェア・エニックス Sukuwea Enikkusu) TYO: 9684 is a Japanese producer of video games and manga. ... Enix Co. ... Atari Games was an American producer of arcade games, originally part of Atari. ...

Grandia, which ESP released in 1997, (developed by Game Arts) was the 1st third-party Saturn title to breach 500,000 units in sales. Afterwards, ESP released titles including Giren's Ambition (Bandai) and Baroque (Sting), later extending footholds into the Dreamcast and PlayStation 2 platforms with titles like Record of Lodoss War: The Advent of Cardis (Neverland Company) and Abarenbo Princess (Alpha System). Grandia is a role-playing game series created by Game Arts. ... Sega Dreamcast The Sega Dreamcast (Japanese: ドリームキャスト; code-named Katana during development) was Segas last video game console. ... The PlayStation 2 (PS2) (Japanese: プレイステーション2) is Sonys second video game console, the successor to the PlayStation and the predecessor to the PlayStation 3 (which is not to be released until November 2006). ... DVD edition. ...

After Sega pulled out of the home console business and the CSK Group put Sega up for sale, Game Arts bought all shares of ESP. ESP continues to publish under its own name.

Notable Works Published

• Lunar 2: Eternal Blue
• Magic School Lunar!
• Grandia (Game Arts)
• Radiant Silvergun (Treasure)
• Mobile Suit Gundam: Giren's Ambition (CRI)
• Silhouette Mirage (Treasure)
• Baroque (Sting)
• Code R (Quintet)
• Bangai-O (Treasure)
• Abarenbo Princess (Alfa System)
• Chaos Seed (Neverland Company)
• Record of Lodoss War (DC) (Neverland Company)
• Ikaruga (Treasure)
• Hajime no Ippo game series - known in North America as Victorious Boxers

Magic School Lunar! is a Computer role-playing game developed by Game Arts and manga publisher Kadokawa Shoten for the Sega Saturn in Japan in 1997. ... Grandia is a role-playing game series created by Game Arts. ... Radiant Silvergun is a vertically-scrolling shooter video game, developed by Treasure Co. ... Gundam (ガンダム) is one of the longest running series of anime featuring giant robots. ... Silhouette Mirage is a video game that was developed by Treasure Co. ... Bangai-O is a shoot em up video game produced by Treasure Co. ... DVD edition. ... Ikaruga (斑鳩, Spotted Dove) is a vertically-scrolling shooter video game developed by Treasure Co. ... Fighting Spirit, known in Japan as Hajime no Ippo (はじめの一歩) is a sports anime and manga series created by Jyoji George Morikawa (森川ジョージ) which was serialized by Kodansha in Shonen Weekly (週刊少年マガジン). ...

References

• Much of the content of this article comes from the equivalent Japanese-language wikipedia article.

External Links

• ESP's official page
• Explanation of GD-NET and ESP on Quintet's site.