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Flagship Co., Ltd. was a subsidiary of Capcom founded for the purpose of improved script writing. It existed from 1997 to 2007 before being liquidated back into Capcom Co., Ltd. The office itself was located in the Shinjuku Sumitomo Building in Shinjuku's Nishi-Shinjuku district until the 2000-01 financial year,[1] when it moved to the Nakano F Building in Shibuya's Honmachi district.[2]
Studio history[]
"There are professionals drawing pictures, creating programs and composing music for video games, but not writing screenplays. We would like to improve the standard of screenplays throughout the video game industry" — Founding statement by President Yoshiki Okamoto |
Flagship was founded in April 1997 as the brainchild of Capcom producer Yoshiki Okamoto, who expressed a need for professional screenplay writers in the games industry after hiring Noboru Sugimura as writer for Resident Evil 2. Inspired by Kazuo Koike's Gekika Sonjuku school, Okamoto and Sugimura began recruiting experienced writers and artists to apprentice the next generation, working on game scenario and art, as well as branching into other media. The company was quickly acquired by Capcom by the end of the 1997-98 financial year, though was allowed to continue working for Nintendo. Sugimura and Okamoto were able to recruit a number of experienced creators such as Hirohisa Soda (Kamen Rider, Super Sentai, Metal Heroes) , Shōzō Uehara (Ultraman, Metal Heroes) and Susumu Takaku (Metal Heroes, Super Sentai) and as Jun'ichi Miyashi. Over its history, the number of scripts assigned to Flagship increased, mostly overseen directly by Sugimura with less experienced writers and artists, as well as the company's apprentices.
Flagship was ultimately, however, not as long lived as Geikika Sonjoku. Okamoto would be replaced as President by Yoshifumi Yamashita in 2003 to form Game Republic. Sugimura himself departed the company in late 2004 to move into other things, and unexpectedly died in February 2005 owing to a heart condition. In 2006, Capcom began pursuing a new business strategy focusing on the concentrated management of personnel and resources rather than its semi-autonomous divisions. Flagship's liquidation into Capcom Co., Ltd. was announced 17 April 2007 and was effective 1 June.[3]
Flagship works[]
Employees[]
- Noboru Sugimura (杉村 升)
- Hirohisa Soda (曽田 博久)
- Jun'ichi Miyashita (宮下 準一)
- Kishiko Miyagi (宮城 季詩子)
- Kyōko Sagiyama (鷺山京子)
- Yasuyuki Suzuki (鈴木やすゆき)
- Shōzō Uehara (上原 正三)
- Susumu Takaku (高久 進)
- Kazue Hitomi
- Hiromichi Nakamoto (中本博通)
- Satoshi Nakai (中井覚)
- Yosuke Hirano
- Yoshifumi Yamashita
- Shin Yoshida (吉田伸)
- Naoyuki Sakai (酒井直行)
- Kyoko Sagiyama (鷺山京子)
- Tsuji Makoto (辻理)
- Kaneharu Mitsumura (三ツ村鐵治)
- Ryu Noguchi (野口竜)
- Senri Kita (北千里)
- Hideyuki Ishizeki (いしぜきひでゆき)
Sources[]
- notes
- references
- ↑ Capcom's 1998 annual report.
- ↑ Capcom Annual 2001.
- ↑ Notice about merger of a consolidated subsidiary. capcom.co.jp. Retrieved on 2020-05-18.
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