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IQue

iQue, Ltd. is a Chinese video game localization and development company located in Suzhou. It was founded in 2002 as a joint venture between Taiwanese-American engineer Wei Yen and Nintendo to manufacture and distribute Nintendo hardware and software for mainland China.

iQue released the iQue Player in 2003 and went on to distribute several Nintendo handheld systems under the iQue brand. By 2013, the company became a wholly owned subsidiary of Nintendo and later shifted its focus away from hardware to localization, technical support, and internal development work.

Its Chinese name, Shényóu, is a double entendre meaning "to make a mental journey".

History

Nintendo established iQue in December 2002 as a joint venture with Wei Yen, a veteran of earlier Nintendo hardware collaborations. Yen had previously served as senior vice president at Silicon Graphics, where he contributed to Project Reality, the hardware project that became the Nintendo 64. After leaving SGI, Yen founded BroadOn, which developed the cryptographic security system used in the iQue Player to deter piracy.[3]

The company introduced its first product, the iQue Player, in 2003. The system adopted a handheld TV game format in part to comply with a 2000 Ministry of Culture ban on the sale of traditional home video game consoles.[4] In the following years, iQue distributed official Nintendo products for the mainland Chinese market, focusing primarily on handheld systems, which were not subject to the same ban. While Nintendo and iQue initially planned to release the Wii across mainland China, these plans were ultimately scaled back, and the iQue Player was the company's only home console released in China.

By 2013, iQue became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Nintendo.[5] During the early 2010s, iQue contributed to emulator development for Nintendo's Virtual Console services, including NES and Game Boy emulation on Nintendo 3DS and Nintendo 64 emulation on Wii U. The company later supported development of the Nintendo 64 emulator used for Nintendo Switch Online.[6]

Starting from 2017, Nintendo wound down distribution of older hardware under the iQue brand. Nintendo partnered with Tencent to introduce the Nintendo Switch in mainland China in 2019.[7] iQue shifted to providing customer support for legacy products and began localizing Nintendo titles into simplified Chinese, while Nintendo Hong Kong handled traditional Chinese.[8][9]

In 2019, iQue began hiring programmers and developers, signaling a broader transition toward internal development support for Nintendo EPD.[10]

Consoles

iQue Player

The iQue Player is a handheld TV game variant of the Nintendo 64. It was designed to bypass China's ban on home consoles at the time and to combat game piracy in the market. A total of 14 games were released for the console.

Game Boy Advance

An iQue variant of the Game Boy Advance was released on 8 June 2004. Its revisions were also released under the iQue brand; the Game Boy Advance SP was released in October 2004,[11] and the Game Boy Micro was released in October 2005.[11]

Eight games were released for the Game Boy Advance.[12][13] Twelve more games were planned, but cancelled due to high piracy of the system.

iQue DS

The iQue DS is a variant of the Nintendo DS. It was released on 23 July 2005. Six games were released for the console.[13] Unlike in other regions, iQue DS games are region locked, preventing them from being played on DS systems from other regions.[15] Some DS revisions were released under the iQue brand; the Nintendo DS Lite was released on 26 June 2006,[11] and the Nintendo DSi was released in December 2009.[16] The latter was bundled with Nintendogs and a gift card with 1,000 DSiWare points, allowing users to download software.

iQue 3DS XL

The iQue 3DS XL is a variant of the Nintendo 3DS XL. It was the only version of the 3DS offered by iQue. Unlike the Nintendo 3DS XL from other regions, the iQue 3DS XL cannot access the Nintendo eShop, transfer save data between systems, or play DSiWare. Only two games were released for the console, both of which were pre-installed on every console made. No physical game cards were ever made.

Due to its regional lockout, the iQue 3DS XL is only compatible with games that were localized in simplified Chinese. As a result, an additional 14 games can be played on the console.

External links

References

  1. 神游科技（中国）有限公司 – 天眼查^
  2. tewaswork iQue, retrieved 17 November 2011^
  3. Marshall H. iQue technical information retroactive.be, May 6, 2018, retrieved 2025-05-10^
  4. Nintendo iQue Player: A Beginner's Guide – RetroGaming with Racketboy racketboy.com, retrieved 2025-03-31^
  5. 関係会社の状況 Nintendo, 28 June 2013, retrieved 20 July 2014^
  6. luigiblood. The oddities of Nintendo Switch Online retro service Tumblr, retrieved 17 February 2023^
  7. Nintendo Switch's Chinese Edition Only Supports Three Games Hype Beast, 29 April 2020, retrieved 14 June 2020^
  8. Iggy. Official iQue Website Updated After 6 Years NintendoSoup, 5 March 2018, retrieved 2 February 2019^
  9. Iggy. iQue Is Now Localizing Nintendo Switch Games Into Simplified Chinese NintendoSoup, 1 December 2017, retrieved 2 February 2019^
  10. 工作^
  11. iQue Ltd. ique.com, retrieved 18 December 2018^
  12. iQue Ltd Ique.com, retrieved 14 October 2013^
  13. iQue Ltd Ique.com, retrieved 14 October 2013^
  14. iQue Ltd. ique.com, retrieved 27 February 2021^
  15. Touch!Ique Ds Ique.com, retrieved 14 October 2013^
  16. Brian Ashcraft. DSi Launches In China Kotaku, December 23, 2009, retrieved December 29, 2025^
  17. Introducing the iQue DS Lite YouTube, 13 February 2018, retrieved 13 April 2018^