Westone Bit Entertainment

Westone Bit Entertainment Inc. (株式会社ウエストン·ビット·エンタテインメント, Kabushiki-gaisha Uesuton Bitto Entateinmento) was a video game developer founded in May 1986, based in Mukoujima, Sumida-ku, Tokyo. They were most famous for the Wonder Boy/Monster World series. Originally called Escape (エスケープ, Esukēpu), the company was renamed to Westone as the word Escape made them sound unreliable.^[1] The company's name was changed yet again to Westone Bit Entertainment in April 2000.^[2] The chief publisher was Ryuichi Nishizawa. The company went bankrupt and entered the liquidation process on October 1, 2014.^[3] Westone Bit Entertainment was greatly associated with Sega during its existence, with Sega publishing a majority of their games. Currently, the intellectual property rights to Westone Bit Entertainment's games are owned by LAT Corporation, who licenses the Wonder Boy series to external developers with Sega.

The Westone name is derived from the first characters of the names of company founders, Ryuuichi Nishizawa (Nishi = West) and Michishito Ishizuka (Ishi = Stone).^[1]