The company was founded in January 1988 and incorporated as Arc Co., Ltd. in May. It was renamed Arc System Works in 1991. The company produced a series of
Sailor Moon video games for publisher Angel including
Bishōjo Senshi Sailor Moon S: Jōgai Rantō!? Shuyaku Sōdatsusen which was the first fighting game it produced
. It published its first title in 1995 which was
Exector for the
PlayStation. On June 11, 2015, the company acquired all intellectual properties of
Technōs Japan, such as
Double Dragon and
Kunio-kun, from Million Co., Ltd. Even prior to its acquisition of Million's library, the company had been the publisher of Technōs' video games for
Virtual Console in Japan. Following the transaction, the company took the publishing duties from
Aksys Games for Virtual Console releases in North America, though some Technōs games were already published by Arc System Works. On February 6, 2017, the company acquired the rights to the
Jake Hunter,
Theresia,
Nazo no Jikenbo, and
Koneko no Ie series from publisher
WorkJam. On November 2, 2017, the company announced the establishment of a
North American branch in
Torrance, California, known as Arc System Works America, Inc. In July 2024, Arc System Works opened a European branch at
Paris, France. ==Games developed==