History

CSK Research Institute (CRI) was established as an independent unit of the IT solutions company: CSK Group.
Research and development proceeded in several areas: artificial intelligence, audio and video technology and CD-ROM recording and playback.

Provided technological support for the development of FM-TOWNS (the world’s first personal computer built with a CD-ROM - marketed by Fujitsu) and developed Towns GEAR, the FM-TOWNS core system.
Wrote Afterburner II (FM-TOWNS) Japan’s first game provided on a CD-ROM.

Afterburner II (FM-TOWNS)

Afterburner II
(FM-TOWNS)

Assisted Sega Corporation, since the early 90s, with research into multi-streaming and sound compression technology.
Began providing middleware for the Sega Saturn&trade home game console (CRI ADX, CRI Sofdec, CRI Clipper, etc.)

Sega Saturn

ADX, Sofdec logo

Dreamcast

Established CRI Middleware Co., Ltd.
Broke from the CSK Sega Group order to begin development of multi-platform middleware.
Began providing middleware for the PlayStation®2, tdhe NINTENDO GAMECUBE® and the Xbox® home game consoles.

PlayStation2

NINTENDO GAMECUBE

Xbox

Moved the headquarters to a fashionable area of Tokyo (Omotesando), and established a US office in San Francisco.
Began providing middleware for various arcade game consoles and personal computers (Windows.)
CRI Sofdec technology used by Pegasys Inc. in the TMPGEnc series.

TMPGEnc

CRI's middleware product line-up supports the world standard in digital playback: Dolby Digital 5.1
Began the companies annual exhibition at CEDEC (CESA Developers Conference).

Dolby Digital

The company’s CEDEC seminar

Began CRI's annual exhibition at the Game Developers Conference (aimed at the world’s largest gathering of game developers).
Received a FRONT LINE AWARD ’04 from the game magazine Game Developer in the audio category.
CRI Sofdec received the Technology Award for the Best of WPC Expo 2004 (Nikkei Business Publications, Inc.)

The company’s GDC booth

Received award in the Technology category at WPC EXPO 2004

WPC EXPO 2004 Received an award in the Technology category

Began providing middleware for the PLAYSTATION®3 and the Xbox360™ home game consoles.
Began providing middleware for the PSP® portable game console.
The number of titles using CRI middleware exceeds 1,000.

PLAYSTATION3

Xbox360

PSP

Began providing middleware for Nintendo's Wii® home game console.
Began providing the CRI Audio product for multi-core game consoles.
Established CRI's U.S. subsidiary, CRI Middleware, Inc.
The new brand CRIWARE was established as the umbrella term to encompass our entire product lineup.

Wii

CRI Middleware, Inc.

CRIWARE brand logo

Middleware for the NINTENDO DS® portable game console gains momentum.
Released CRI Vibe and CRI FileMajik middleware for the DS.
The CRI Channel blog for game developers is made public.
Began a HD video capture service, CRI-HVC, to assist clients with capturing HiDef video without signal loss.
Began supplying Cinema Studio, a video system for the Wii.

NINTENDO DS

CRI announces C-TST, a technology that controls playback speed in real-time without changing pitch. Incorporated into CRI Vibe.
Began supplying FileMajik Pro, a file compression and data organization system.
Website is given a facelift.

* The above information is valid as of January 2009.