AlphaDream was a Tokyo-based game developer. They produced games for the Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS and Nintendo 3DS. They were most prominently known for having created the Mario & Luigi series and developing all of its games, starting with Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga in 2003. Most of their other releases were Hamtaro games, but they also had some original properties. In October 2019, the company filed for bankruptcy and shut down.

History[edit]

AlphaDream
Type	Second Party
Founded	January 12, 2000
Status	Defunct
Base	Tokyo, Japan
Bestseller	Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga
Homepage	Japanese page
Notable Members	Tetsuo Mizuno

The company was spun off from AlphaStar, which was a staffing agency that originally specialized in construction work. Chihiro Fujioka joined AlphaStar in 1999 to lead a new video game division, and he spun it off into its own company with Tetsuo Mizuno in the following year. The spin-off company was initially called AlphaStar Software until it was renamed AlphaDream several months later. Their staff consisted of several former Square-Enix members, and the name AlphaDream was apparently chosen as a play on Square's big Final Fantasy series, as the name could mean "first dream".

AlphaDream shut down in 2019 after declaring bankruptcy. They said it was due to a mix of poor revenue and high development costs against being unable to keep up with growing debt. Their last Mario & Luigi game, a remake of the third game Bowser's Inside Story, had come out for the 3DS earlier that year and went down as one of the worst-selling Mario titles of all time. The last-known game to be released with their involvement was Mario & Luigi at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, a Sega came for which they did additional work.