Level-5
Independent Japanese video game developer and publisher. Legal entity: Level-5 Inc. (レベルファイブ Reberu Faibu). Headquartered in **Fukuoka, Japan**. **FOUNDED:** Established in **October 1998 by Akihiro Hino** (current President, CEO, and chief designer) — Hino founded the company with his development team after departing fellow Japanese developer Riverhillsoft following the release of OverBlood 2 (per Wikipedia 'Level-5 (company)', NintendoWiki, and Grokipedia). One of Japan's most successful independent (non-conglomerate) video game developer-publishers. **FLAGSHIP IP & FRANCHISES:** Professor Layton series (Nintendo DS/3DS puzzle-adventure mega-franchise, ~17M+ units sold), Inazuma Eleven series (football/soccer RPG), Ni no Kuni series (co-produced with Studio Ghibli — Wrath of the White Witch, Revenant Kingdom), Yo-kai Watch series (mass-market Japanese kids monster-collection franchise), Dark Cloud / Dark Chronicle (PS2-era action RPG, with SCE), Rogue Galaxy (PS2), White Knight Chronicles, Fantasy Life, Snack World, Megaton Musashi, and ongoing development of new IP including Decapolice, Fantasy Life i, and Inazuma Eleven: Victory Road. Long-standing AAA partnership with Sony Computer Entertainment / Sony Interactive Entertainment (Dark Cloud, Rogue Galaxy era) and Nintendo (Professor Layton, Yo-kai Watch, Inazuma Eleven for Nintendo handhelds). Operates Level-5 comcept as an anime/cross-media expansion arm — Professor Layton, Inazuma Eleven, and Yo-kai Watch all expanded into anime, manga, and feature films. **2 Moby refs unified per Atlas rule 17:** (1) 'Level-5 Inc.' (gc=11, primary Japanese parent — Developed 88, Published 79); (2) 'Level-5 International America, Inc.' (gc=1, US publishing/licensing subsidiary handling North American releases — Published 1). The US subsidiary is the international publishing arm rather than a separate development studio, hence ref unification. Independent — no parent corporation; majority-owned by founder Akihiro Hino. Moby records: 'Level-5 Inc.' + 'Level-5 International America, Inc.' 2026 UPDATE: LEVEL-5 Vision 2026 II showcase (September 2026) — announced Inazuma Eleven: Bold Revolution, a sequel to Inazuma Eleven: Victory Road, plus new character Shane Starfall (per Nintendo Life round-up); at the end of the broadcast CEO Akihiro Hino teased a 'major title' to be announced in celebration of the 30th anniversary (per Gematsu). Hino commentary: modern quality demands have made fast game development like in the old days 'extremely difficult', explaining longer dev cycles (per Automaton); separately addressed an AI-art controversy, explaining a 2D-to-3D AI-assisted pipeline while denying 'simplistic AI-generated output' in the game (per games press/Reddit coverage).
- Type: Publisher and Developer · Buyer
- Headquarters: Japan
- Activity taxonomy (by shipped credits): Development, Publishing, Trailers, cinematics and cut-scenes Production services, Art, assets and fonts production services, Localisation services, QA and testing services
- Credited games in the group: 11
Partners proven by shipped credits
- Bandai Namco Entertainment America — Publishing, 4 shared credits, 2018–2021
- Bandai Namco Entertainment Europe — Publishing, 3 shared credits, 2018–2021
- Sony Interactive Entertainment America — Publishing, 3 shared credits, 2015–2016
- Studio Ghibli — Trailers, cinematics and cut-scenes Production services, 2 shared credits, 2019–2021
- Digital Works Entertainment — Art, assets and fonts production services, 2 shared credits, 2019–2025
- Bandai Namco Entertainment — Publishing, 2 shared credits, 2018–2018
- Babel Media — Localisation services, 1 shared credits, 2019–2019
- h.a.n.d. — Development, 1 shared credits, 2018–2018
- QLOC — Localisation services, Porting services, 1 shared credits, 2019–2019
- Bandai Namco Entertainment Korea — Publishing, 1 shared credits, 2019–2019
- GameScribes — QA and testing services, 1 shared credits, 2019–2019
- Sound Inn Studios — Audio design and production services, 1 shared credits, 2019–2019
- Digital Media Lab — Art, assets and fonts production services, 1 shared credits, 2019–2019
- Bandai Namco Entertainment Asia — Publishing, 1 shared credits, 2019–2019
- Side UK — Audio design and production services, 1 shared credits, 2019–2019
Latest related news
- Sega mirrors Square Enix and Capcom in legacy-IP retreat at TGS 2026 (2026-09-21)
- Japan game-dev AI adoption jumps to 85.8%, with human review as default control (2026-09-17)
- Level-5 targets 2-year AAA cycles with AI as fans reject showcase visuals (2026-09-14)
- Comcept studio closure: an M&A cautionary tale for personality-driven acquisitions (2026-01-30)
Source: Games Atlas (gamesatlas.app), based on MobyGames credits and Games Atlas analysis. Games Atlas does not estimate revenue or report the performance of individual games. Profile: https://gamesatlas.app/companies/level-5