Artoon (株式会社アートゥーン Kabushiki-Gaisha Ātūn) was a computer and video game
third-party developer established in 1999. The team was primarily affiliated in the
United States with recent and current
Microsoft Xbox and
Xbox 360 projects, although they had also worked with
Hudson Soft and
Nintendo on other platforms. Key Artoon personnel include
Yoji Ishii, Manabu Kusunoki, Hidetoshi Takeshita, Yutaka Sugano, Masamichi Harada,
Takuya Matsumoto and
Naoto Ohshima. When the company formed, it drew personnel and talent from several of
Sega's development teams, particularly those which worked on
Sonic the Hedgehog (created by Ōshima), and
Panzer Dragoon. The developer had approximately 85 employees. The company's focus was to create original game content for various consoles. Artoon became defunct when the parent company, AQ Interactive, filed for bankruptcy.