Rocket Company IS Smilesoft

Discuss Smilesoft/Rocket Company in general here.
RacieB
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Joined: Thu Dec 28, 2006 4:27 am

Re: Rocket Company IS Smilesoft

Post by RacieB »

I figured this all along, but it still says on Wikipedia and the like that Rocket bought Smilesoft out. Take a look at this though, the last archived About Company page before Smilesoft's site started redirecting to Rocket, and the first available archived About Company page for Rocket:

http://web.archive.org/web/20030413061943/www.smilesoft.co.jp/company/index.html
http://web.archive.org/web/20030803205603/www.rocketcompany.co.jp/rocket.html

Note that they have the same address, phone number, and fax, use the same bank, have the same clients, and use the same wordings in their business description. Rocket also claims to have been founded June 19, 1998, but lists nothing that they've ever worked on since before their website showed up.

Maybe their president was the guy who REALLY liked monster collection GameBoy games with blinky peripherals and after he was arrested the company breathed a collective sigh of relief, now they could work on all those Math/English/Kanji/History Aptitude Testing games like they wanted!
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andwhyisit
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Joined: Fri Dec 14, 2007 9:24 pm

Re: Rocket Company IS Smilesoft

Post by andwhyisit »

wrote:  S<steady>堅実
  M<moral>道徳
  I<inventive>独創性
  L<lucky>幸運
  E<effort>努力
I think the outsourcing proves "steady", "moral" and "effort" wrong. They aren't exactly "lucky" with their president being arrested, and "inventive" is out because their president was probably the one to come up with those ideas. Time for a name change. :D
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Sanqui
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Re: Rocket Company IS Smilesoft

Post by Sanqui »

Wow, hm. Nice find.


...let's write them a letter ;_;
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andwhyisit
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Re: Rocket Company IS Smilesoft

Post by andwhyisit »

Sanky wrote:Wow, hm. Nice find.


...let's write them a letter ;_;
To the Rocket Company president,
Please bring back Telefang.

With thanks,
Tulunk Village Forums ^_^
SM-dood(imported)
Posts: 66
Joined: Wed Dec 17, 2008 1:26 am

Re: Rocket Company IS Smilesoft

Post by SM-dood(imported) »

Well, if we're crazy (and rich) enough, we could always buy the rights. :P
Kimbles(imported)
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Re: Rocket Company IS Smilesoft

Post by Kimbles(imported) »

Huh, I'm pretty sure it's the president who was arrested who now works for Rocket Company. D: So it was probably more of a name change thing...

The impression that I got was that Smilesoft was more of a game publisher, since Telefang was developed by Natsume and Bugsite was developed by KAZe. Looking at the credits for the games, it seems like there were only about 5 different people who worked there. :/

Interestingly, the president in question (Mr. Iida Shuuhei) appears in the Imagineer staff for the first 3 Medarot games (which were developed by Natsume and published by Imagineer)... According to some Medarot sites, he left after that to start his own company (Smilesoft) which lasted until he was arrested a few years later.

So after that they formed Rocket Company, which itself is owned by Imagineer. *nod* They've been sitting on the rights for the Medarot series as well as everything owned by Smilesoft, but now that they've released Medarot DS and it seems to actually be a good game, there might be some hope yet. XD
RacieB
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Joined: Thu Dec 28, 2006 4:27 am

Re: Rocket Company IS Smilesoft

Post by RacieB »

It grates on me how perfect a platform the DS is for a potential Telefang game.

FRIEND CODE = TELEPHONE NUMBER

I keep wanting to do mockup screenshots for Telefang 3 but thinking about it just makes me sad since we'll probably never see it. I dunno. Maybe if we pooled together a package of "we would love a sequel to telefang and this is how it could look" they might consider it... T_T?
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Sanqui
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Joined: Sun Dec 16, 2007 12:25 am

Re: Rocket Company IS Smilesoft

Post by Sanqui »

Maybe they just need to be reminded of it... I wonder if they have a "Mail us questions about our games!" thingy on their site.

Oh hey, they're recruiting. Game director, graphic designer, programmer, ...planner? kanji whatever, business producer, marketer, "etc...".
Anyone? :|

RacieB
Posts: 871
Joined: Thu Dec 28, 2006 4:27 am

Re: Rocket Company IS Smilesoft

Post by RacieB »

I don't think any of us lives in Tokyo... =x
Aezarce(imported)
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Re: Rocket Company IS Smilesoft

Post by Aezarce(imported) »

wrote:Well, if we're crazy (and rich) enough, we could always buy the rights.

if only... But wouldn't it be something if the community did pool in to buy the rights to telefang. I would freak out lol
wrote:Maybe if we pooled together a package of "we would love a sequel to telefang and this is how it could look" they might consider it... T_T?
did someone say, overflowing mailbox of ideas? We should start constantly mailing them until they give in =)
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