Clover Studio

Clover Studio Co., Ltd.
Native name	株式会社クローバースタジオ
Romanized name	Kabushiki Gaisha Kurōbā Sutajio
Formerly	Studio 9
Company type	Subsidiary
Industry	Video games
Founded	1 July 2004
Defunct	March 2007
Fate	Dissolved into Capcom
Headquarters	Osaka, Japan
Key people	Atsushi Inaba (CEO); Kenzo Tsujimoto (vice-president); Yoshifumi Yamashita (director); Haruhiro Tsujimoto (senior manager); Tamio Oda (managing director); Shinji Utsunomiya (design lead); Dragan Tosic (lead composer); Ryuta Takahashi (software engineer);
Products	God Hand; Ōkami; Viewtiful Joe;
Parent	Capcom
Website	cloverstudio.co.jp

Clover Studio Co., Ltd. (Japanese: 株式会社クローバースタジオ, Hepburn: Kabushiki Gaisha Kurōbā Sutajio) was a Japanese video game development studio founded by Capcom. The studio developed the PlayStation 2 port of Viewtiful Joe, both versions of Viewtiful Joe 2 for the GameCube and PlayStation 2, and the PS2 titles Ōkami and God Hand. The name "clover" is an abbreviation of "creativity lover"^[1] as well as the Japanese syllables mi ("three") and ba ("leaf") coming from the names of Shinji Mikami and Clover's Atsushi Inaba.^[2]

The studio consisted largely of existing Capcom R&D talent, who had formed the company (then called Studio 9) to give themselves greater executive control (and thus creative freedom), like Sega's semi-autonomous studios in the early 2000s. The studio focused largely on creating new intellectual property rather than sequels. When these failed to perform on par with Capcom's more popular series, Capcom attempted to merge the studio back into their internal R&D. Those at the studio chose instead to leave the company, and Clover was dissolved.

Some of the key members of Clover founded Seeds Inc., a new development group^[3] that merged with ODD Incorporated in October 2007 to form PlatinumGames,^[4]^{[better source needed]} which has since built up a staff composed of former Clover staff. Other members (including the art director of Ōkami) went to join UTV Ignition Games at their Tokyo development studio, which developed the game El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron. On 28 October 2010, one of the most prominent members of Clover Studio and then PlatinumGames, Shinji Mikami, joined ZeniMax Media in a deal where ZeniMax acquired his new development studio Tango Gameworks.^[5]

^ "Capcom Forms Clover Studio". Game Gossip. 21 April 2004. Archived from the original on 2 September 2004. Retrieved 18 July 2005.
^ "Capcom & Clover, Over and Over: Former Clover Head Atsushi Inaba on a Post-Capcom World". Gamasutra. 12 October 2006. Archived from the original on 27 February 2008. Retrieved 18 July 2011.
^ Gantayat, Anoop (15 February 2007). "Clover Reborn". IGN. Archived from the original on 5 February 2012. Retrieved 9 August 2007.
^ プラチナゲームズ株式会社
^ Sinclair, Brendan (3 November 2010). "ZeniMax acquires Shinji Mikami studio". GameSpot. Retrieved 22 June 2020.

[1] "Capcom Forms Clover Studio". Game Gossip. 21 April 2004. Archived from the original on 2 September 2004. Retrieved 18 July 2005.

[2] "Capcom & Clover, Over and Over: Former Clover Head Atsushi Inaba on a Post-Capcom World". Gamasutra. 12 October 2006. Archived from the original on 27 February 2008. Retrieved 18 July 2011.

[3] Gantayat, Anoop (15 February 2007). "Clover Reborn". IGN. Archived from the original on 5 February 2012. Retrieved 9 August 2007.

[4] プラチナゲームズ株式会社

[5] Sinclair, Brendan (3 November 2010). "ZeniMax acquires Shinji Mikami studio". GameSpot. Retrieved 22 June 2020.

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