Paon

Japan Founded 1999 Website

Paon Corporation, Ltd. was founded on January 20, 1999. Through a partnership with Nintendo, Paon developed DK: King of Swing, Donkey Kong Barrel Blast and DK: Jungle Climber. Paon was also involved in development of 2000 SNK's Neo Geo Pocket Color fighting game titles, SNK Gals' Fighters as composer and sound work team, as well as composer to some other Neo Geo Pocket Color titles. When the company Data East went bankrupt, Paon Corporation bought the rights to some of their games, including Karnov, Chelnov, and Windjammers as well as the Glory of Heracles and Kuuga series, all of which are now owned by Paon DP. Paon developed Glory of Heracles in 2008, the sixth title of the Glory of Heracles series, which was published by Nintendo. The rights to that game are split between Paon and Nintendo with the latter owning the trademark as well. In 2010, the company entered into the business of mobile game development. Paon merged with DP Co., Ltd. on March 1, 2015 to form Paon DP. An associate company of pachislot maker Daito Giken, (since the company's chairman is the same as Daito Giken). As a result of the merger, DP became the surviving entity while Paon Corporation was dissolved. The new company now develops mobile games only to Japan, as well as often licensing their owned properties, in 2017, Paon DP moved its headquarters to Kita, Tokyo. A large amount of developers who were previously at Paon ended up at another Japanese video game developer called Picola Co., Ltd., which was formed at the same time as the Paon/DP merger in February 2015 and later co-developed the game Little Dragons Café, a cafe-management and dragon-raising simulator that was released for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch in 2018.

Paon at a Glance

Paon is a Japanese developer founded in 1999 that operated actively from 2003 to 2013. The company released ten games on PlayPile, all developed in-house, with only one title listed under their publishing arm. Their catalog spans a wide variety of genres including platformers, simulators, puzzles, racing, strategy, role-playing, fighting, and sports titles. Most of their work targeted Nintendo hardware, specifically the Wii, which hosted three of their releases, followed by the Wii U and Nintendo DS with two games each. They also released titles for the Game Boy Advance, PlayStation 3, 3DS, PlayStation 2, and Xbox. The quality of Paon's output is mixed when looking at the aggregate data. The average IGDB rating across five scored titles sits at 66.8 out of 100. Their best work includes the 2008 platformer Klonoa, which holds an 80.3 rating, and Donkey Kong Jungle Climber from 2007 with a score of 70.9. They also produced three other games in the 60 to 79 range, including DK King of Swing, Glory of Heracles, and one unlisted title. However, their portfolio includes at least one mixed-rated game and a lower-scoring entry in Donkey Kong Barrel Blast, which earned just 47.8 points. The company focused heavily on licensed properties during the 2000s, producing seven games in that decade compared to only three in the 2010s. Paon built significant relationships with major publishers like Nintendo and SNK. They developed a series of Donkey Kong titles for handheld consoles and worked as composers for Neo Geo Pocket Color fighting games early in their career. In 2005, they acquired rights to several properties from the bankrupt Data East, including Karnov and Windjammers, and later developed Glory of Heracles, the sixth entry in that series. Their activity slowed considerably after 2013 as they shifted focus toward mobile development. The company merged with DP Co., Ltd. in March 2015 to form Paon DP, at which point the original Paon Corporation dissolved. Many former employees moved to a new studio called Picola, where they worked on titles like Little Dragons Café.

Total Games

66.8

Avg Rating

2003

First Release

2013

Latest Release