iQue

China Founded 2002 Website

iQue, Ltd. (simplified Chinese: 神游科技; traditional Chinese: 神遊科技; pinyin: Shényóu Kējì) is a Chinese video game/game localization and support development company located in Suzhou. It was founded as a joint venture between Wei Yen and Nintendo in 2002 as a Chinese video game console manufacturing company. The following year, the company released the iQue Player. The company had manufactured and distributed official Nintendo products for the mainland Chinese market under the iQue brand until 2018. iQue only released portable Nintendo games for 3DS XL, DS, Game Boy Advance, and Game Boy Advance SP. The iQue Player is the only home console available from the company in China. There were plans to release the Wii in all of China but when Satoru Iwata officially announced the release date for it on September 20, 2007, he said it would only be available in Hong Kong, under the Nintendo brand. The Nintendo DSi was released in China in December 2009 as iQue DSi. The Nintendo 3DS XL was released in China as iQue 3DS XL in December 2012. By 2013, the company became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Nintendo. By 2018, Nintendo had ceased any official distribution of older game consoles into mainland China under the iQue brand. Nintendo partnered with Tencent to bring the Nintendo Switch into the Chinese market at the end of 2019. Since 2017, iQue continues operations by offering consumer support for any previously released products, and translating and localizing new games released worldwide by Nintendo into simplified Chinese, while Nintendo Hong Kong does traditional Chinese. In 2019, iQue began to hire developers, along with programmers and testers, indicating that the company was transitioning into development to support game projects for Nintendo EPD.

iQue at a Glance

iQue operates as a specialized publisher and developer based in China with a history dating back to its 2002 founding. This entity functioned as a joint venture between Wei Yen and Nintendo before becoming a wholly-owned subsidiary by 2013. Their catalog on PlayPile contains 13 titles, with the company listed as the publisher for all of them and the developer for only two. The bulk of their output arrived during the 2000s when they released 11 games. They released just one title in the following decade before their active publishing window effectively closed around 2011. The company focused heavily on arcade games, which make up ten of their thirteen entries. Their portfolio also includes a puzzle game, a shooter, a visual novel, and a card or board game. Most of these titles target web browsers, accounting for ten releases. The remaining three games appeared on Nintendo handhelds, specifically the DS and DSi platforms. This platform distribution reflects their role in bringing Nintendo hardware and software to the Chinese market during an era when official console access was limited. Quality metrics for their catalog show a very narrow range of data since only one title has received a rating on PlayPile. That single entry is Number Battle from 2007, which holds a score of 83 out of 100. This places the game in the great category while the other twelve titles lack user ratings for comparison. The company released several minor arcade titles in December 2004 such as Clay Shoot and Pop the Bubblewrap alongside Grab 2 Coins. Their last listed release was Zaojiao Leyuan wo de Tonghua Huiben: Xiaohai tu de Gushi in July 2011. The data shows a clear shift in their business model over time. They began as a hardware manufacturer and distributor for Nintendo products like the iQue Player and later the DSi. By 2018, they stopped distributing older consoles under their own brand. Since then, they have focused on consumer support and localization services. Recent reports indicate they started hiring developers in 2019 to work on projects for Nintendo EPD rather than releasing games under the iQue name.

Total Games

Avg Rating

2004

First Release

2011

Latest Release