Natsume Inc. is an American video game publisher. Originally established as an American division of Natsume Co., Ltd. in 1988, it split from its parent company in 1995 to become an independent publisher.
Natsume Inc. is located in Burlingame, California. It is best known for publishing unique, family-oriented niche games, such as Harvest Moon and Reel Fishing. In 2013, Natsume Inc. inaugurated a Japanese division called Natsume Inc. Japan with no connection to its former parent company, Natsume Atari.
Natsume Inc. was originally established as an American division of Natsume Co., Ltd. in San Francisco, California in May 1988.
From the end of the Super NES era up until late 2014, Natsume Inc. was known for publishing the Story of Seasons games in North America under the title of Harvest Moon. The last game in the series it published was ' for the Nintendo 3DS. In 2015, the developer of the series, Marvelous, brought the next game in the series, Story of Seasons, to North America with its own US branch, Xseed Games, ending the relationship it had with Natsume. Since then, Natsume Inc. has released its own games under the Harvest Moon name, starting with ', continuing with Harvest Moon: Seeds of Memories and Harvest Moon: Skytree Village. In 2013, Natsume Inc. opened up a development studio of its own, named Natsume Inc. Japan.
Natsume Inc. has also operated an eBay shop, selling copies of older games sealed in their original packaging, collected from storage at its offices. At auction, the company sold a sealed copy of Pocky & Rocky for over $1,600.
These are games published by Natsume Inc. and/or developed by its subsidiary in Japan after becoming independent from Natsume Co., Ltd.
Most of these games were only published by Natsume in North America, although some reached Europe under the Natsume name through distribution deals with European companies, and some digital releases were self-published by Natsume in Europe.