Pony Canyon
| Pony Canyon | |
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| Founded | October 1, 1966 |
| Headquarters | Minato, Tokyo, Japan |
| Website | ponycanyon.co.jp |
| Other Names | ポニカ (Ponica) |
Pony Canyon, Inc. (株式会社ポニーキャニオン Kabushikigaisha Ponī Kyanion) is a Japanese media conglomerate founded in 1966. The company produces all kinds of various media including music and videos.
The company started out under the name Nippon Broadcasting System Services, Inc. and later changed the name of the company to Pony Inc. The name Pony Canyon came from the name of Pony Inc. combined with the record company Canyon Records, in which both belonged to FCI (Fujisankei Communications International), Pony Inc. and the two merged to create the company name on October 21, 1987. During the 80's and 90's, the company entered the home video game market, and sometimes used the moniker Ponyca. Most of their games stayed in Japan, but several of them made it outside of Japan, mostly being published by FCI in North America and Europe.
Some of Pony Canyon's notable works are the original version of Super Mario Bros. 2 (NES), Yume Koujou: Dokidoki Panic (FDS), Tasmania Story (GB) (based on the Japanese film), and the home console version of the Ultima series. They also produced the Tanigawa Kouji no Shougi Shinan series.
Though the company released several games, they were not a game developer and were merely the publishers only. Some of the companies Pony Canyon would contract development to in the early days included Atelier Double, Marionette, Crosstalk, Opera House, Infinity, and TOSE. However, there were also several ghost developers were contracted by the company as well, so these companies remain a mystery.
Contents
Games
Audio Personnel
While Pony Canyon never actually developed video games, the company acted as a record label, and as a result, their musicians worked on the soundtracks to some of the games. It is unknown if Pony Canyon supplied the musicians at the developers' requests, or if Pony Canyon mandated it.
- Hitoshi Sakimoto - Hired as a freelancer? Composer for some of the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons games.
- Seiji Toda - Bassist/composer for Fairchild signed to Pony Canyon.
- Takeshi Yasuda - Composer for various titles.
- Tsugutoshi Goto - Composer for Ultima: Exodus.
- Yasuhiro Kawasaki - Composer for various titles.
Contractors
The following is a list of contractors from developers who made games for Pony Canyon:
- Iku Mizutani - Contractor from Natsume.
- Kazuo Sawa - Contractor from Infinity.
- Kenichi Tomizawa - Contractor from Atelier Double.
- Masatomo Miyamoto - Contractor from Compile.
- Yoshio Kobayashi - Contractor from Crosstalk.
Logos
First logo.
Current logo.
