It was formed on April 6, 2005, after
Chiyomaru Shikura left
Scitron to begin the company as its executive director, a position he formerly held until January 2023. The company is divided into two parts, 5pb. Games for the manufacturing of video games, and 5pb. Records for the record label. It was a wholly owned subsidiary of the TYO Group until Shikura purchased the remaining rights from the TYO Group on April 15, 2009. Shikura co-owns 5pb. with AGOne, an affiliate of
Dwango Japan. Staff members include scenario writer Naotaka Hayashi, artist Yukihiro Matsuo, and producer Tatsuya Matsuhara. In April 2011, a group of companies consisting of Arkray, Seed Project, Dwango Creative School, Animelo Summer Life, 5pb. Records, and 5pb. Games merged under the parent company Mages. Inc. led by executive director Chiyomaru Shikura. In July 2019, Mages was acquired by Shikura's concept studio Chiyomaru Studio, with the goal of being more flexible and fast in its decisions as a company independent from their parent company Dwango and from the Kadokawa group. With that said, while Mages would no longer be a part of Kadokawa Group following the management buyout, it still expected to maintain the same favorable relationship with the Group that it had so far. Along with this buyout, the company intended to strengthen its branding by consolidating the 5pb. brand into Mages. In December 2022, it was reported that Mages would enter
insolvency as a result of financial losses of ¥613 million (approximately $4.6 million). In January 2023, Chiyomaru Shikura announced via
Twitter that he would resign as company chairman and executive director, but stated that he would still be part of Mages as an Executive Producer. ==Artists==