GungHo Online Entertainment did not start out in games. It was founded on July 1, 1998 as ONSale Co., Ltd., a joint venture between SoftBank and onSale Inc., to run an online auction business in the United States. In 2000 the company moved its headquarters to Chiyoda, Tokyo and moved into auction systems. In 2002 it changed direction completely and turned to online game services, with the Japanese server of Ragnarok Online at the center of the business. Growth was steady from there. Joint development of online games with Game Arts began in 2004, the company listed on the Hercules (Nippon New Market) in March 2005, and that December it released its own MMORPG, Emil Chronicle Online. In November 2007 GungHo acquired the video game assets of Interchannel, and in April 2008 Gravity Co., Ltd., the Korean developer of Ragnarok Online, became a subsidiary. That put the game behind GungHo's online business under the same roof as the company that had hosted it in Japan. The defining moment came in 2012 with the mobile release Puzzle & Dragons. It made GungHo a huge financial success, reportedly accounting for 91% of its $1.6 billion revenue in 2013, and it is still the company's main source of revenue.
That success reshaped both the portfolio and the ownership. In January 2013 GungHo acquired Grasshopper Manufacture, the studio behind killer7, No More Heroes and Lollipop Chainsaw, and sold it to NetEase in October 2021. In February 2024 it sold Acquire Corp. to Kadokawa. In June 2016 SoftBank sold most of its stake, which ended its majority ownership and left GungHo independent. In August 2026 GungHo and Sony Music Entertainment Japan announced a capital and business alliance: Sony Music acquired 22.93% of the shares and became the largest shareholder, while GungHo remains a listed, independent company. Today the group is led by chairman Taizo Son and president and CEO Kazuki Morishita. It includes Game Arts, Gravity and the US arm GungHo Online Entertainment America, which published Camouflaj's Republique on PlayStation 4 on March 22, 2016. For PC players, the catalog offers a way back to older favorites. Grandia II: Anniversary Edition, the Grandia HD Collection and Lunar Remastered Collection return earlier games to modern systems, and they sit alongside Let It Die, while Ninjala (2020) and Ragnarok Mobile carry the company's work to other platforms. GungHo went from online auctions to a mobile hit big enough to carry the whole company. That same willingness to change direction is what keeps both its classic series and its newer ideas in front of players today.
