The story
Founded by Yukinori Taniguchi in 1993.1
Founded in 1993, Yuke's was named after founder Yukinori Taniguchi's high school nickname. The first two games that the company developed were the platform game Hermie Hopperhead and the pro wrestling game Toukon Retsuden. The latter title was a best-seller in Japan. Though Activision purchased the rights to publish the game in North America and began localization work, only the first game was localized, becoming Power Move Pro Wrestling with a different roster of wrestlers. In November 1999, Yuke's established Fine Co., Ltd. as a wholly owned subsidiary focused on online systems and mobile game development.
Beginning in 2000, Yuke's began to develop wrestling games for THQ and Jakks Pacific based on the World Wrestling Federation (WWF; now WWE). They were recommended to THQ by Aki, who had developed their own line of wrestling games. From 2005 to 2012, Yuke's owned 54% of New Japan Pro-Wrestling, the top professional wrestling promotion in Japan.
In August 2019, then-series publisher 2K Games announced it had moved WWE game development to California-based studio Visual Concepts. Earlier that year, Yuke's had revealed its frustration over what it had been able to achieve with recent WWE 2K games and suggested that its relationship with publisher 2K Sports was partly responsible. Producer Hiromi Furuta revealed that Yuke's had established a new development team tasked with creating a rival wrestling IP, with the intention of reinvigorating its staff. On November 10, 2020, All Elite Wrestling (AEW) announced an upcoming console game developed by Yuke's, led by Def Jam Vendetta and WWF No Mercy director, Hideyuki "Geta" Iwashita; this game would later go on to become AEW Fight Forever. Yuke's acquired Aquaplus from Pole to Win in August 2025.
Exciting Pro Wrestling controversy
Instead of THQ and Jakks Pacific, Yuke's published seven WWF/WWE games in Japan, starting with WWF SmackDown! in 2000 and finishing with WWE SmackDown! vs. Raw 2006 in 2005. These games were renamed to "Exciting Pro Wrestling 0-7" and released for PlayStation consoles. On October 18, 2006, WWE sued THQ and Jakks Pacific over alleged improper sales of WWE video games in Japan, and other countries in Asia, concerning that both parties were sub-licensing publication rights to Yuke's, which they were not allowed to do. As a result of this, THQ formed a new division in Japan, and WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2007 was released in Japan in 2006 directly by THQ and Jakks Pacific, instead of Yuke's. This satisfied WWE, and the lawsuit was thrown out.
From Wikipedia’s article on Yuke's, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4