Biography
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Masaya Matsuura
President
NanaOn-Sha co., Ltd
An artist with extraordinary music sense who plays with technology to create entertainment media, Masaya started his career back in 1983 when he formed the band PSY'S (pronounced "Size"). Famed for pushing the frontiers of computer music for the time, PSY'S disbanded in 1996 after nine hit albums. That same year, Masaya took Japan by storm with the release of "PaRappa The Rapper" for PS1, winning notable awards and changing the landscape of gaming forever. Masaya's 1999 release, "vib-ribbon" (PS1) was another gaming revolution, trailblazing the concept of procedurally generated course designs by beat-scanning Audio CD's. In 2003, Masaya produced and composed unique sound capabilities for the new Aibo "ERS-7" robot dog, further establishing his reputation as a leader in sound design and theory across multiple industries.
2005 saw the release of "Tamagotchi Connection: Corner Shop" (Nintendo DS) which sold more than a million copies in Japan alone. The game's runaway success led to acclaimed sequels in 2006, 2007 and 2008. Continuing his desire to broaden the appeal of games Masaya also masterminded the release of "musika" for the Classic iPod in 2008.
In 2009 the Wii game "Major Minor's Majestic March" became Masaya's first commercial collaboration with acclaimed artist Rodney Alan Greenblat since 2001's PaRappa 2. By giving the player responsibility to lead a marching band, the game again demonstrated Masaya's desire to explore the boundaries of music in games.
He is also the first and only Japanese Emeritus member of the Advisory Board for the Game Developer's Conference (GDC) in The United States.
