© CygamesPictures, Inc.
Media advertising company CyberAgent announced last Friday that Cygames Pictures will become a consolidated subsidiary of CyberAgent on February 27. Cygames Pictures is currently a subsidiary of CyberAgent‘s subsidiary Cygames. Cygames Pictures will change its name to CyPic on April 6.
Nobuhiro Tanaka will continue to serve as President and CEO. CyberAgent‘s Representative Director and President Takahiro Yamauchi will serve as a Director alongside Jōji Seita. CyPic will continue to work on anime production under a new structure. Its classification will also change from games to media and IP.
Cygames Pictures will commemorate its 10th anniversary on April 5. The company’s name change to CyPic on the following day marks the company’s milestone.
CyberAgent established Cygames in 2011, and the company has produced games such as Uma Musume Pretty Derby, Rage of Bahamut, and Granblue Fantasy. Cygames established an anime division in March 2015 and the anime production subsidiary Cygames Pictures in April 2016. The company has worked on anime productions inspired by its games including Uma Musume Pretty Derby, Rage of Bahamut Genesis, Rage of Bahamut: Virgin Soul, and Granblue Fantasy the Animation.
Yuito Kimura co-founded Cygames with President Koichi Watanabe in 2011. He became the company’s executive director in April 2019. He served as a producer on Granblue Fantasy, Shadowverse, Princess Connect! Re:Dive, Idoly Pride, and Rage of Bahamut Genesis. He stepped down from his role on September 30.
Cygames founded its Cygames AI Studio in December. The subsidiary plans to research, develop, and provide secure and efficient access to AI technology for game creators. The company aims to “show the industry what creative minds can do” with AI. Its office is in Shibuya in Tokyo, and Eitoshi Ashihara serves as the CEO. Masaru Kanai and Shuichi Kurabayashi are directors, and Ryohei Okuma is an auditor. The company said that art produced from generative Al is not used in its current products, and that it “won’t implement generative AI into our products without prior notice.”
In April 2024, CyberAgent created in-house guidelines for its creators for using generative AI/large language models for images, aimed at avoiding violations of copyright law and highlighting that current generative AI cannot produce a usable end product as-is.
CyberAgent established its AI Lab group in 2016, and it debuted its first large language model based on Japanese in May 2023. The company established an AI-focused business unit focused on game development named “Game AI Lab” in October 2023, as well as the “Animation AI Lab” business unit for animation production in the same month.
Cygames established its Global Business Development team in 2017, followed by its first overseas branches in South Korea and Taiwan. The company established its United States-based Cygames America branch, as well as its London-based Cygames Europe branch, in April 2023. Cygames established the Cygames Singapore overseas branch in May 2024.
Sources: CyberAgent, Cygames Pictures, Animation Business Journal (Tadashi Sudo)