Yostar
- CN: 上海悠星网络科技有限公司
- JP: 株式会社Yostar
- Headquarters: Putian Information Industry Park (700 Yishan Road), Xuhui District, Shanghai, China
- Japanese branch: 300 Kanda Neribeicho, Chinoba City, Tokyo, Japan
- Hong Kong branch: World Finance Centre (South Tower), Harbor City, 17 Canton Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon, Hong Kong
- Isekai Kara no Nono
- Nekoparaiten
- Stella Sora
- Arknights (EN, JP, and KR servers)
- Azur Lane (EN and JP servers)
- Blue Archive (JP and CN servers)
- Heaven Burns Red (EN server)
- Mahjong Soul (EN, JP, and KR servers)
Shanghai Yostar Co., Ltd., also known as Yostar Games and often simply known as Yostar, is a Chinese video game developer and publisher based in Shanghai. They are the publisher of the English, Japanese, and Korean servers (collectively known as the Global server) of Arknights.
Background
Originally a Chinese doujin gaming student society dedicating themselves in making spin-off games known as Studio GameMaster or Studio GM, Yostar was founded as a video game developer and publisher company by Yao Meng and Chen Kai under the help of Liu Wei, the founder of miHoYo that is later known for Honkai Impact 3rd, Genshin Impact, and Honkai: Star Rail.
However, Yostar's first game released in 2014, Isekai Kara no Nono (诺诺来自异世界), failed to achieve commercial success and was shut down in 2016, putting the company on the verge of bankruptcy. It was during this time that Hypergryph was founded and working on Arknights, prompting Yao Meng to make a risky decision of selling his family house to both publish Azur Lane JP and EN (which Yostar had already working on with its developers, Manjuu Games and Xiamen Yongshi), and fund the development of Arknights.[1] Yostar also started publishing Mahjong Soul worldwide in 2017, and the company has since recovered from their setbacks primarily thanks to the major successes of Azur Lane and Arknights, and went on to became one of the major Chinese mobile game companies.
From their entrance to the gaming industry, Yostar has been investing much in ACGN-themed games produced by developers based in China, as well as spearheading the entry of Japanese ACGN market to China through Azur Lane and Arknights. Recently Yostar had restarted their game development industry by announcing the development of Stella Sora as well as expanding to other fields, even including anime production as attested by Yostar Pictures. Yostar had branches in Tokyo and Hong Kong, with the former being focused on the Japanese/JP servers of their games while the latter focusing on the English/EN servers.
As mentioned above, Yostar played a major part in the foundation of Hypergryph and, as of 2023, owns 15% of HG's shares; in turn, HG owns 23% of Yostar's shares. Although this resulted in many mistakenly believing that Yostar owns HG, in truth both companies are more of close partners who shared similar origins, with Yostar particularly having a major influence in Arknights' internationalization.
Divisions and subsidiaries
- Yostar Pictures
- Studio GM: A game studio bearing Yostar's former name with their first and only known work being the previously mentioned Isekai Kara no Nono.
Works
Games developed
- Isekai Kara No Nono (CN and JP; 2017–2018)
- Nekoparaiten (TBD)[2]
- Stella Sora (TBD)
Games published
- Azur Lane (EN and JP; 2018–present)
- Epic Seven (JP; 2019–2022)[3]
- Mahjong Soul (EN, JP, and KR; 2019–present)
- Arknights (Global; 2020–present)
- Blue Archive (JP and CN; 2021–present and 2023–present, respectively)
- Guardian Tales (JP; 2021–2023)[4]
- Revived Witch (EN and KR; 2021–2023)[5]
- Aether Gazer (EN and JP; 2023–2025)[6]
- Heaven Burns Red (EN; 2024–present)
- Cookie Run: Tower of Adventures (JP; TBD)
Employees and collaborators
- Yao Meng (姚蒙): Founder and CEO
- Chen Kai (陈开): Official register
- Li Hengda (李衡达): Director-general for the Japanese branch