Biography
ACS Visual Entertainment LLC., also known as simply ACS, is an Imaginary What-if Japanese entertainment conglomerate, video game developer and publishing company headquartered in Minato, Tokyo. Beyond its video game business, the company also produces and distributes trading cards, light novels and arcade cabinets, among others. In the past, ACS has also distributed pachinko and slot machines up until leaving the pachislot business altogether in 2020. Currently, ACS is one of the largest gaming companies in the world in terms of revenue.
Founded in 1967 as A.C.S. Manufacture Ltd., as a manufacturer of arcade attractions such as kiddie rides, toy cranes and coin pusher games, the company later officially changed its name to ACS Co., Ltd. in 1981 following the company's full-time shift into video game development, eventually changing it again into ACS Computer Entertainment LLC. in 1995, before changing into its current name in 2006.
ACS is best known for various video game franchises, such as Fighting Champions, Sentoki, Fight or Die, Code Chronos, Crisis Moon, Arkane Arena (a 50-50 joint project with SBEntertainment), Spunky the Squirrel, Blazin' Wheels, To the Beat and Half*Dead, among various others. They also currently own the publishing rights to the Bloody Roar franchise, after having bought them from Konami.
ACS currently owns several development studios such as ACS Production Studios Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya, as well as Orange Soft (known for developing fighting games), Digital Revolution (noted for their racing games) and Team Beats (ACS' rhythm game divison). ACS has also acquired several America-based development studios such as Hoodlum Softworks in 2007 (dissolved in 2010) and Headrush Games in 2016.
ACS served as the Japanese distributor for In-Verse games following the success of their crossover fighting game Cross Code: Project Ultimate Versus Battle. In exchange, its subsidiary Shiny Star Games distributed some of ACS' games in European regions.
ACS has also made licensed video games, with their most recent licensee being the MMA promotion Bellator MMA, having just released their first game under their license, Bellator: MMA Fury. In the past, ACS has also made licensed sports games under the ACS Sports label, as well as the Ring of Honor: Unchained series of wrestling games based on the Ring of Honor professional wrestling promotion.
In 1999, ACS expanded their business module by introducing their light novel publishing imprint, DokiDoki Bunko (DDB). Since its inception in 1999, DokiDoki Bunko has published hundreds of popular light novels.