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Tose, one of Japan's largest game companies specializing in commissioned development work, says it plans to actively prioritize orders for console games over mobile games going forward (source: Finanical Results Briefing for September 2024 to May 2025, p3).

For context, Tose has been doing behind-the-scenes development work for big clients like Nintendo, Square Enix, Capcom and Bandai Namco for decades. Although the company isn't credited on many of the projects its involved in, Tose is the developer behind a huge list of games dating to the NES era, with some more recent titles including Crisis Core Final Fantasy VII, Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door and Tales of Graces f Remastered.

In its financial statement for the nine-month period from September 2024 to May 2025, Tose reported significant revenue growth driven by intensified development activities on multiple major game projects (this comes as a big turnaround compared to the large-scale losses the company saw in the 2023/2024 fiscal year).

On the other hand, Tose says that revenue from the mobile titles it runs has remained mostly flat year-over-year. Rather than pursuing more work in mobile games, the company has decided to prioritize accepting orders for console game development. The reason they cite is "intensifying competition in the mobile market."

Although it depends on the contract, developers of mobile games are paid not only initial development fees, but also fees related to post-launch updates and events. They may even receive revenue-based incentives, which makes live-service mobile games a lucrative deal for contractors (as pointed out by GameBiz).

However, it seems that due to Japan's mobile market growing saturated, Tose has judged that developing and running mobile game projects may not be as profitable as it used to. In the previous fiscal year, 35.3% of Tose's revenue came from mobile games. This share has dropped to 22.5% as of May 2025, and will likely continue to shrink as Tose prioritizes console games.

Major Japanese co-development studio Tose decides to prioritize console game development in face of mobile market’s saturation - AUTOMATON WEST

As Japan's mobile market grows increasingly saturated, contract developer Tose will be prioritizing orders for console games over mobile games.

automaton-media.com

 

[nial]

Surprised at the employee count (657 employees as of last year), I hope they don't shut down given their legacy.

 

[Utamaru1706]

However, it seems that due to Japan's mobile market growing saturated, Tose has judged that developing and running mobile game projects may not be as profitable as it used to.

lol, this is a really weird way for saying "we gave up on the mobile market, because we can't compete with the Chinese and Korean games".

 

[Killer8]

Hopefully live service developers also give up soon due to saturation.

 

[Dr. Wilkinson]

Paper Mario 64 remake next!! Do it, Nintendo!

 

[Saber]

All this is meanless if they go to the GaaS route on consoles. Its already saturated with putrid games everywhere.

 

[Holammer]

Tose should make a name for themselves. Make the company name a brand, develop their own properties.

 

[Jinzo Prime]

Major Japanese co-development studio Tose decides to prioritize console game development in face of mobile market’s saturation - AUTOMATON WEST

As Japan's mobile market grows increasingly saturated, contract developer Tose will be prioritizing orders for console games over mobile games.

automaton-media.com

I take this to mean they have a lot of Switch 2 games in co-development. I wouldn't be surprised if they are helping with the Switch 2 deluxe upgrades for Switch 1 games, as they apperently helped port Breath of the Wild from Wii U to Switch.

I expect Nintendo is heavily leaning on Tose right now.

 

[Dragon_Rocks]

Consoles right now:

 

[IAmRei]

lol, this is a really weird way for saying "we gave up on the mobile market, because we can't compete with the Chinese and Korean games".

700 people company vs chinese and korean capital to make server and marketing is not fair.

Japanese people drawing back their interest to return in japan only games these time. Tose develop games longer than any gacha chinese and korean games. Their knowledges are in Consoles these years.

 

[adamsapple]

They have their niche and they seem to be fine sticking to it. Tose is the biggest developer very few people have heard of, they've got their hands in many major franchises like RE, FF etc.

That's fine by me, personally.

 

[baphomet]

lol, this is a really weird way for saying "we gave up on the mobile market, because we can't compete with the Chinese and Korean games".

It's almost certain Tose has helped develop some of the bigger mobile games on the market.

 

[Utamaru1706]

700 people company vs chinese and korean capital to make server and marketing is not fair.

Japanese people drawing back their interest to return in japan only games these time. Tose develop games longer than any gacha chinese and korean games. Their knowledges are in Consoles these years.

Nah, the problem lies within the Japanese game industry as a whole, where they still have this old mindset about "free-to-play" games on mobile platform, in which they spend the bare minimum for producing it, but they went really hard with the monetization, so they can get break-even faster, then move to their next projects.

This is the reason why most of Japanese mobile games were literally cash grabs that only lasted less than 2 years, because they already made profit in a very short time, and there's no point in keeping the service going for longer than that.

The invasion of Chinese and Korean games acts as a wake-up call for the JP mobile games industry, where these games literally sets up the bar really high in terms of quality and presentation, and JP game companies just can't keep up with the competition, since they choose to just live in their own bubble for like a decade while making cheap low-quality games, instead of improving it...

 

[Kataploom]

Afaik the reason why mobile gaming grew so fast was because of the low entry barrier in the tech side, we have decades of game dev knowledge and tools and they were used in mobile gaming which speed up its growth at very very low cost and risk.

But now mobile hardware is more or less reaching around Xbox One sustained performance, which demands console-like budgets, team sizes, and is way riskier, for which F2P model isn't enough anymore, that's why we see Asian devs going back to consoles and PC.

I read about it last year and I think someone here also posted a thread, I don't remember anymore but the thing was around those lines.

 

[Woopah]

Great to hear, looking forward to seeing all the things they are working on.

 

[Griffon]

 

[Mr Hyde]

Tose does the right here prioritizing console gaming before mobile. As the old saying goes:

Brose before hose

 

[Angry_Megalodon]

But now mobile hardware is more or less reaching around Xbox One sustained performance, which demands console-like budgets, team sizes, and is way riskier, for which F2P model isn't enough anymore, that's why we see Asian devs going back to consoles and PC.

Wrong. In fact, it's the only viable model for high budget anime games. That's why Mihoyo has become the most influential gaming company in the last years, no matter how hard people pretend not to notice or care.

 

[Parazels]

Right decision. There is an enormous console market and the other microscopic gaming markets on Earth!

Who the hell would waste time on those?

 

[thicc_girls_are_teh_best]

I take this to mean they have a lot of Switch 2 games in co-development. I wouldn't be surprised if they are helping with the Switch 2 deluxe upgrades for Switch 1 games, as they apperently helped port Breath of the Wild from Wii U to Switch.

I expect Nintendo is heavily leaning on Tose right now.

That's my take, especially if we're talking Japan in particular. That said, PlayStation and Xbox will see some latent benefits, but I have to imagine Tose will focus on console games that are at the very least coming to Switch 2. This could also be a means for Nintendo to get more AAA 3P support for their platform that otherwise might not have come to be.

 

[EN250]

"consoles" = Switch, whatever else left in the market is negligible

 

[spons]

Chinese Century.

 

[Durin]

Not shocked, discoverability and recommendations are trash on both Google Play & Apple App stores, and the UIs don't sort content that well.

The more games release, the worse the problem will get. Consoles don't do that much better, but at least the release cadence is slower so each game gets more time and space on the storefronts.

 

[justiceiro]

They exist since mês, and I never heard of them. Man, so many developers on this industry goes unnoticed.