Industry Video game industry | Headquarters Tokyo, Japan Number of employees 42 | |
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Key people Hiroyuki TakahashiShugo TakahashiMotoi Sakuraba Products Shining seriesGolden Sun seriesMario sports games Video games | ||
Camelot Software Planning (株式会社キャメロット, Kabushiki-gaisha Kyamerotto) is a Japanese video game developer established in 1990 under the name Sega CD4, but quickly renamed to Sonic! Software Planning. As Sonic!, they were closely involved with Sega and responsible for initial development of the Shining series. In 1995, there was a brief period where they worked for Sony Computer Entertainment in addition to creating Shining products.
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By 2001, now known as Camelot, they had partnered with Nintendo and created the Mario Tennis and Mario Golf series of sports games, as well as the role-playing game series Golden Sun.
History
Camelot was founded in 1990 as a division of Sega known as Sega CD4 (Consumer Development Studio #4), soon changing their name to Sonic! Software Planning, which was formed to create, alongside Climax Entertainment, Shining in the Darkness for the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis. The studio also developed other successful games in the franchise, including Shining Force and Shining Force II. In 1995, Sonic! officially separated from Sega, but agreed to continue developing games for the Shining series and to not release any games for rival systems that would threaten the success of the Shining franchise.
By Shining Force III, the studio had begun operating under its current name, Camelot Software Planning. In late 1998, Sega began focusing their resources on the Dreamcast, leaving Camelot with their final Shining Force III scenario, for the Sega Saturn, in jeopardy. Though the scenario was released, Camelot decided to move away from Sega completely and to establish a partnership with Nintendo.
The company then developed many Mario sports games, including Mario Golf, and Mario Tennis, as well as the Golden Sun series of role-playing games.
The creation of the Mario character, Waluigi, can be attributed to Camelot Software, after Nintendo requested a "Wario-like" counterpart for Luigi during the development of Mario Tennis.