Armor Project
Armor Project is the company that owns the intellectual copyrights pertaining to the Dragon Quest series. It is owned by Yuji Horii, with his family serving on the board of directors. As the sole controlling entity of the series, it is listed first in all instances regarding ownership.
| Armor Project Co., Ltd. | |
|---|---|
| Type | Private |
| Founded | December 1985 |
| Years Active | 1985 - present |
| Key People | Yuji Horii |
| Offices | Tokyo, Japan |
| Website | None |
Company detailsEdit
Armor Project was founded in December of 1985, one month after the production of Dragon Quest began. It is located at Ebisu Garden Terrace Ichibankan 2601, 1-4-3 Mita, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 153-0062, and employs ten people [1].
Relationship with Square EnixEdit
Being the I.P. holding entity, Armor Project is the licensor of the Dragon Quest series to Square Enix, which handles the publishing of the games' physical media. Square Enix grandfathered this relationship from the Enix corporation after the merger with Squaresoft on April 1st of 2003. This is due to the corporate structure of Enix, which was purposefully designed to be a digital publishing house for video game software with the rights to a game's intellectual property being credited to the original creator. Square Enix held no influence on the selection of the development studio contracted to program a particular Dragon Quest game until Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies, due to the title and and subsequent entries being developed internally with Square Enix's own employees. This has continued for Dragon Quest X and Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age.
MisconceptionsEdit
Contrary to popular belief, Armor Project is not a three person joint ownership between Yuji Horii, Akira Toriyama, and the late Kōichi Sugiyama. It is wholly owned by Horii, with Akira Toriyama being credited via his Bird Studio (バードスタジオ) office and Koichi Sugiyama by his Sugiyama Kobo label.