Sting Entertainment 『株式会社スティング』, founded on February 7, 1989, is a relatively small Japanese company that provides phone services and enjoys making games with unusual systems or concepts. Shinichi Ito is one of their head designers. They've gained notoriety for remaking some of their more successful games over and over and over, but recently they've been branching out and have been producing more new games. Their company name is sometimes stylized as ST!NG.
Many of their games have cellphone minigame spinoffs that no one outside of Japan gets to play, as our cellphones just can't handle them yet.
Most of Sting's later games have been published by Atlus, and in Atlus of Japan has signed a deal with them to be their exclusive publisher. Despite this, a lot of Sting's recent games have been suffering from No Export for You, as Atlus USA has chosen not to localize them.
Sting formed a partnership with fellow company Idea Factory in 2012, and some games they make together have been released under the joint company name of Super Sting.
They are particularly known for their absolute love of Gratuitous English.
Sting's titles include the following:
- The Jetsons: Invasion of the Planet Pirates (1994), released in Japan as Yokai Buster: Ruka no Daibouken (1995).
- Treasure Hunter G, for the Super Famicom (1996)
- Baroque and its many spinoffs and remakes, originally for the Sega Saturn (1998)
- The Evolution series:
- Evolution: The World of Sacred Device, for the Sega Dreamcast (1999)
- Evolution 2: Far-Off Promise, for the Sega Dreamcast (1999)
- Evolution Worlds, for the Gamecube (2002)
- The Dept. Heaven series, which will eventually include nine games (plus spinoffs):
- Riviera: The Promised Land, made for the WSC (2002) and remade for the GBA (2004) and PSP (2006)
- Yggdra Union, made for the GBA (2006) and remade for the PSP (2008)
- Yggdra Unison, an Alternate Universe spinoff made for the cellphone (2007), which was then ported to the DS (2009)
- Blaze Union, a direct prequel to Yggdra Union, which was released in May for the PSP (2010)
- Gloria Union, a newly-announced pirate-centric PSP game (June 2011)
- Knights in the Nightmare, made for the DS (2008) and remade for the PSP (2010)
- Gungnir, made for the PSP (May 2011)
- The Dokapon series:
- The Dokapon DX PS2 port (2004)
- Dokapon the World, co-developed with Dokapon creators Asmik for PS2 (2004)
- Dokapon Kingdom on the PS2/Wii (2008)
- Dokapon Kingdom: Connect for Switch (2023)
- Dokapon Journey for the Nintendo DS (2008)
- Dokapon Up Mugen No Roulette, a Crossover with Utawarerumono on the PS4/Switch (2020)
- Hexyz Force, a new game developed for the PSP (2009) and released by Atlus in English May 2010.
- Generation of Chaos VI (Generation of Chaos: Pandora's Reflection in North America), the latest fantasy RPG in one of Idea Factory's long-running series (PSP, June 2012; localized by NISA in February 2013)
- Date A Live Visual Novels, Licensed Game co-developed with Compile Heart
- Rinne Utopia for PlayStation 3, Steam (2013, Steam version 2019)
- Ars Install for PlayStation 3, Steam (2014, Steam version 2019)
- Rio Reincarnation for PlayStation 3, Steam (2015, Steam version 2019)
- Ren Dystopia for PlayStation 4 (2020)
- Hyperdevotion Noire: Goddess Black Heart, a Turn-Based Strategy spinoff in the Neptunia series; co-developed with Compile Heart (Play Station Vita, May 2014 in Japan and February 2015 in North America and Europe; published by Idea Factory in all territories)
