Shochiku Ventures, the corporate venture capital of the Shochiku Group, announced that it will begin accepting applications for Shochiku Game Accelerator 2025 from March 12th.
■Program overview
"Shochiku Game Accelerator 2025" is an accelerator program that supports the expansion of new services that update gaming experiences into Japan and global deployment. The selected companies will be invited to Tokyo during the demonstration experiment to coincide with the demonstration day (interim report meeting) in September to support networking in Tokyo.
The Shochiku Games Business Office has invested in game companies, and has recently published games from around the world, mainly PC/home game consoles, including MiSide, which has been rated "overwhelmingly popular" despite the fact that the number of Steam reviews exceeded 80,000 in the last two months of release. Selected companies will be able to implement PoC using Shochiku games.
■Features of this program
・Support for demonstration experiments:
・Performing PoC using Shochiku Games
・Costs up to $100,000 (non-stopping costs)
・Networking support in Tokyo locally:
・Invited to Tokyo to coincide with the demonstration day (interim report meeting) in Japan on September 24th
・Stand up at events where Japanese venture capitalists and game companies gather
・ Partner participation
・Venture capital and game companies will be participating in this program as partners
▼Application form
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeNVxoIQlg82XRhHbEPlRKWorz0Hbge967cTpyuIJMfBI7hzQ/viewform
*Application deadline: May 19, 2025, 11:59 PM Japan time
*The demonstration experiment will be targeted at "new services that update your gaming experience." Development costs for game titles are not included this time.
■Schedule
May 19th: Application deadline (until 11:59pm Japan time)
June 9th to 13th: Online Pitch Selection
Late June: Notification of selection results
Late June to late September: Demonstration experiment period (first half)
September 24th: Demo Day (interim report meeting) (planned)
October to the end of December 2025: Demonstration experiment period (second half)
■Representative's comments
Inoue Takahiro, CEO of Shochiku Ventures Co., Ltd.
We launched our gaming business about a year ago. We have mainly been working on the publishing business of indie games. This accelerator program is aimed not only at developers, but also at companies with technology in various game-related fields such as middleware and localization. We look forward to developing the gaming industry ecosystem and co-creating new gaming experiences. We look forward to your application.
■About Shochiku Ventures
Shochiku Group's Corporate Venture Capital (CVC) was established on July 1, 2022. Aiming to accelerate open innovation, we will undertake two businesses: investment targeting startup companies and co-creation with startup companies.
▼Official WEB
https://www.shochiku-ventures.co.jp/