| Lightweight Co., Ltd | |
| Type: | Private |
| Foundation: | November 22, 1995 |
| Location: | Ebisu, Shibuya[1] |
| Key People: | Hideo Ooishi (president) |
| Industry: | Video games |
| Products: | Bushido Blade series Kengo series |
, formerly is a developer of video games. While the company developed innovative fighting games with samurai themes, such as the Bushido Blade series and the Kengo series, it is known for its Hello Kitty games.[2]
The company was founded on November 22, 1995 in Meguroku, Tokyo under managing director Tetsuo Mizuno. The developer Square Co., Ltd. initially had a 40% stake in Lightweight. Lightweight cut its ties with Square in 1998, and in March 1999, Naotaka Ueda was appointed as CEO and director of the company. The following month, developer Genki acquired a 40% stake in the company. In March 2001 Lightweight became a wholly owned subsidiary of Genki, but dissolved this connection on March 31, 2006 when Lightweight was bought by Index Visual & Games, Ltd. Ueda retired in his position in November 2008.
On November 3, 2017 the name of the company went back to Lightweight Co., Ltd.[3]
In July 21, 2023, video game developer M2 announced that it purchased the rights of all NEC Avenue and NEC Interchannel games published on TurboGrafx-16 owned by Lightweight, including CD titles. Despite this, Lightweight only started the process of transferring the rights of those games to M2 on March 31, 2023.[4] [5]