{"id":50689,"date":"2025-08-04T18:51:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-04T09:51:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=50689"},"modified":"2025-09-17T14:25:06","modified_gmt":"2025-09-17T05:25:06","slug":"toheart-developer-aquaplus-to-be-acquired-by-wwf-smack-down-and-edf-developer-yukes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/toheart-developer-aquaplus-to-be-acquired-by-wwf-smack-down-and-edf-developer-yukes\/","title":{"rendered":"ToHeart developer Aquaplus to be acquired by WWF Smack Down and EDF developer Yuke\u2019s"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Japanese game development company Yuke\u2019s announced<\/a> on August 4, that it will acquire Aquaplus as its subsidiary. Consequently, F.I.X Records, a company under Aquaplus, will also become a subsidiary of Yuke\u2019s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aquaplus is a video game publisher that originally operated under the Leaf brand, with a focus on bishojo visual novel games. They have developed numerous console and mobile titles, some of their most famous ones being the ToHeart, Utawarerumono and White Album series. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"ToHeart.\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In 2022, Aquaplus became a subsidiary of CREST, which was part of the larger Pole To Win group and handled content and media, including games. The following year, CREST merged with two other companies within the group and rebranded as HIKE, under which Aquaplus continued to operate as a game development studio. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, on June 24 this year, Pole To Win announced that HIKE and its other subsidiaries will be going independent as a result of the corporation backing out from the digital media and content industry. On the other hand, it was decided that Aquaplus would not be made part of the new,independent HIKE. Instead, Pole To Win planned to transfer ownership<\/a> to whichever buyer was most likely to maximize Aquaplus\u2019 value as a game developer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"WWF<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The shares in Aquaplus ultimately went to Yuke\u2019s, a game development company known for its pro wrestling game series WWF SmackDown! and WWE2K. They have also worked on some of the Earth Defense Force titles, and have an unhinged anime-inspired shooting game Full Metal Schoolgirl<\/a> set to release this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Commenting on the acquisition, Yuke\u2019s explains that the fusion of Yuke\u2019s development capabilities and the strength of Aquaplus\u2019 IP and brand will open up possibilities for the development of brand-new genres and titles. By Yuke\u2019s taking on some of Aquaplus\u2019 development projects, they expect to optimize resources and stabilize the efficiency of commissioned work. Additionally, by implementing Aquaplus\u2019 know-how in the bishojo and romance visual novel fields, they hope to expand their scope of development and reach a new audience. With the two companies having expertise in completely different genres and appealing to vastly different audiences, it will be exciting to see what new games this acquisition could bring.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Aquaplus, bishojo visual novel developer known for ToHeart to be acquired by Yuke’s, developer famous for their WWE games.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35,"featured_media":50691,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[17],"class_list":["post-50689","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-japan-related-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"\nToHeart developer Aquaplus to be acquired by WWF Smack Down and EDF developer Yuke\u2019s - AUTOMATON WEST<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Aquaplus, bishojo visual novel developer known for ToHeart to be acquired by Yuke's, developer famous for their WWE games.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/toheart-developer-aquaplus-to-be-acquired-by-wwf-smack-down-and-edf-developer-yukes\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"ToHeart developer Aquaplus to be acquired by WWF Smack Down and EDF developer Yuke\u2019s - 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