Varie

Varie at a Glance

Varie operated as a Japanese publisher and developer from 1988 to 1997. Their catalog on PlayPile contains 26 titles. They released only one game in the 1980s but produced 25 games during the 1990s before ceasing operations after merging into Layup in 1997. The company focused heavily on the Super Famicom with 12 releases, followed by five titles for the Family Computer and four for the Game Boy. They also made two games each for the Sega Mega Drive, PlayStation, and Sega Saturn. The studio had a very broad genre focus despite its small output. Racing and sport games tied for the top spot with nine releases each. They also published four card and board game titles, three fighting games, and three strategy games. Their later work included visual novels and quiz trivia games. Early in their run, Varie licensed properties from F1 racer Satoru Nakajima and Shin Nihon Pro Wrestling. Later titles featured female characters designed by artist Minoru Okamoto. They also marketed handheld LCD games based on Namco properties. Varie had some complex corporate connections. Their early Famicom and Game Boy games were technically published by Kaken Corporation. There is no clear information about the relationship between Varie and Kaken beyond this publishing arrangement. Some staff from Varie appear in credits for Unipacc, another publisher that released XDR for the Mega Drive with a matching product code prefix. Varie and its sister company Sonnet Computer Entertainment merged into Layup in 1997. The final games listed include Nage Libre: Rasen no Soukoku from February 1997 and several Nightruth titles from 1996. While the data does not provide specific review scores, the company maintained a steady pace of releases across multiple genres throughout the decade. Their output was concentrated in Japan during the height of the fourth generation console era. They did not expand significantly into new markets or platforms after their initial focus on Nintendo hardware.

Release Timeline