Interchannel

Interchannel
Company type	Subsidiary
Industry	Video games, Music publishing
Founded	October 2, 1995; 31 years ago
Founder	NEC (as subsidiary)
Defunct	March 1, 2010
Fate	Video game assets acquired by GungHo Online Entertainment; brand and copyrights retained by Index Corporation; later taken over by Lightweight
Headquarters	Japan
Area served	Japan, Europe (via Gamebridge Ltd.)
Parent	NEC (original), Index Corporation (majority owner from 2004), Lightweight (from 2010)

was a Japanese company engaged in both video game development and publishing.

History

Interchannel originated on October 2, 1995, as a subsidiary of NEC, initially formed by separating certain NEC divisions. In October 1997, it integrated the music and gaming divisions of NEC Avenue, followed by the acquisition of NEC Avenue Music Publishing in March 1998. By 2004, approximately 70% ownership of the firm was transferred to Index Corporation for close to 3 billion yen (equivalent to $28 million). During this period, NEC Avenue Music Publishing underwent rebranding. While Interchannel mainly focused on producing games exclusively for the Japanese market, it also created Gamebridge Ltd. in the United Kingdom—a collaborative venture with Bergsala—to distribute its titles across Europe, ultimately releasing only ten games there.

In 2006, Index Corporation established its own music label named Index Music, which concentrated on music from children's anime series sourced from IC Avenue's catalog. This label changed hands to T.Y. Limited in 2008 and was subsequently transferred to Dreamusic under the Feel Mee brand in 2013.

November 2007 saw GungHo Online Entertainment acquire Interchannel’s video game assets from Index Corporation; however, Index retained ownership of the Interchannel brand and copyrights. Later, on March 1, 2010, Lightweight took over Interchannel. More recently, on July 21, 2023, developer M2 secured rights from Lightweight to NEC Interchannel’s titles released for the Super CD-ROM² platform. Notably, NEC Interchannel had published only two games for this system: Puyo Puyo CD Tsuu and De-Ja.

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