Hiroyuki Takahashi (game producer)

Hiroyuki was an employee of Enix and worked on the Dragon Quest franchise, in particular Dragon Quest IV on which he had a significant production role.

In April 1990, Takahashi left Enix with fellow Dragon Quest developer Kan Naito to found the game development studio Climax Entertainment.[1][2] At Climax, Takahashi would write and direct Shining in the Darkness for the Sega Mega Drive.

On June 12, 1991, Takahashi registered a new game company, Sonic! Software Planning, with an 85 percent investment from Sega Enterprises. The studio was named after Sonic the Hedgehog, a Sega mascot character whose first game would release that month.[3]

Sonic would support Climax in the development of the first Shining Force, for which Takahashi has design, production, and writing credits. After Climax broke away from the series, Sonic became the primary developer of subsequent Shining games, which Takahashi would continue to produce.

In April 1994, Hiroyuki Takahashi's brother, Shugo Takahashi, founded Camelot Software Planning as an independent studio that would codevelop games in the Shining series with Sonic, as well as games for Sony's PlayStation console.

In late 1998, Sega began focusing their resources on the Dreamcast, leaving Sonic with its last scenario for Shining Force III for the Sega Saturn in jeopardy. After the project was complete, Camelot acquired Sonic in a merger and then formed a partnership with Nintendo.

Since working with Nintendo, Camelot has developed many Mario sports games, mainly sticking to golf and tennis games. They have also developed the Golden Sun series.

• Hiroyuki Takahashi at MobyGames