What was Activision Japan? Was anything developed there, or was it merely a production/publishing house?
TS: When I was there in 1990, we were actually Mediagenic Japan. But since my games always bore the Activision logo, I just always refer to the company as Activision. I was the first American to work at Activision’s Japanese operation. Our mandate in 1990 was to facilitate licensing. “Licensing in” referred to licensing US or UK titles to Japanese publishers, and “licensing out” referred to licensing Japanese titles for publication in our other markets. Because my experience was in production, I also facilitated localization efforts. Bill Swartz replaced me in Japan. After Bobby Kotick and partners acquired Activision in 1991, Bill became the head guy of Activision Japan. The office employed producers and marketing people, but not programmers and artists. It wasn’t a development studio, if that’s what you’re asking. GDRI: Some of the naming of these Shanghai games is a bit of a mess. I’m looking at a list here, and there’s Dragon’s Eye Plus: Shanghai III, Shanghai II: Dragon’s Eye, Sha
