Cavia (company)

Cavia Inc. (株式会社キャビア) was a Japanese video game developer. The company name was apparently an acronym for Computer Amusement Visualizer, although the company's web site also claimed it referred to caviar.

The company was founded on March 1, 2000, and headquartered in Tokyo. Its shareholders included Amuse Capital, Tokuma Shoten, Tohokushinsha Film Corporation, Nippon Television Network Corporation, Tokyo FM Broadcasting, Mitsubishi Corporation, and Hayao Nakayama.

Cavia was best known for the Drakengard series, the first title in the Nier series (a spin-off of the former) and two Resident Evil rail shooters: The Umbrella Chronicles and The Darkside Chronicles.

In October 2005, the company was sold to AQ Interactive, who became a holding company responsible for the management of subsidiary companies as well as sales and promotion of game software. The old company's game planning & development business was transferred to a newly established Cavia Inc.

In July 2010, the company was officially disbanded and absorbed into AQ Interactive. Nier, released in May 2010, was the studio's last game. Despite the closure, some members of the development staff from Nier, including director Yoko Taro, went on to produce a sequel to the Drakengard series, Drakengard 3, under Access Games and published by Square Enix.

Former members of Cavia have either gone freelance, or joined other development teams within Marvelous AQL (created from the merger of AQ Interactive), Comcept, Tango Gameworks, FromSoftware or rejoined the teams at Namco where members of Cavia were from originally. Former member Yoichi Take (also previously of Namco) left on December 1, 2006 to start his own development studio, Toylogic.