Gust Co. Ltd. (株式会社ガスト, Kabushiki-gaisha Gasuto) was a Japanese video game company founded in October 1, 1993 at Nagano Prefecture. Having originated from Keiken System's software development division, it is best known for producing the Atelier series which continues to sell even to this day.
History
Advertised as the first software house in Nagano Prefecture, Gust started out creating dōjin computer games. It later became an official developer for various PlayStation titles. After releasing Atelier Marie, they continued creating more role-playing games that became well-received by fans in Japan. Some of their titles at the time were also localized in North America by NIS America.
On December 7, 2011, the company had been absorbed by Koei Tecmo as part of a deal with Keiken System. Unlike Tecmo, Gust remains a subsidiary company rather than a merged partner. Nonetheless, it is independently credited as the Gust Nagano Development Department for their created works. The brand is currently represented by Hisashi Koinuma while Gust-chan continues to be its mascot.
It later opened a new site called Gust Social to promote its various social games. The site also provides services like account registration, online shopping, surveys, etc.
The brand's activities in Nagano ended on March 19, 2020 due to plans in moving it entirely to the company's current headquarters at Minato Mirai 21.