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Decipher, Inc. is an American gaming company based in Norfolk, Virginia, US. They began with three puzzles called "Decipher" then moved on to party games and ''Pente'' sets, but since 1994 produced collectible card and role-playing games. Their longest-running offering is the ''How to Host a Murder'' Mystery series. Other popular works have included many different card games. Since 2002, Decipher has released two licensed role-playing games: ''Star Trek RPG'' and ''The Lord of the Rings Roleplaying Game''. ==History== Decipher was originally founded by Warren Holland in 1983 as a games producing company. Their first project was to launch the successful ''How to Host a Murder'' line of party games. Shortly after that, they purchased the license for ''Pente'' from Parker Brothers, and started to produce that game as well, maintaining a position in the games market. Ten years later, a new market of gaming was beginning with the introduction of collectible card games (CCGs). Seeing the opportunity in this market, game designers Tom Braunlich and Rollie Tesh (both former ''Pente'' world champions) conceptualized a media license-based CCG, and in November 1993 approached Decipher with the idea. The following month, Decipher acquired the license from Paramount to create a CCG based on ''Star Trek: The Next Generation''. In August 1994, the new game was previewed for the first time at Gen Con, and in November 1994 it was officially released. Following an early success by the ''Star Trek: TNG CCG'', Decipher looked for another popular media license to base another game on. And so the following year in December 1995, after acquiring the rights from Lucasfilm, Decipher released the ''Star Wars Customizable Card Game''. Both games became extremely popular and were ranked among the top five CCGs for the majority of their production runs (''Star Wars'' often placing second behind only ''Magic: The Gathering''). Despite an initial planned three-year run for the ''Star Trek:TNG'' game, in November 1996 Decipher announced that based on the game's success they'd negotiated a new agreement with Paramount to continue producing the game for longer, and to expand the license agreement to include not only ''Star Trek:TNG'', but also all of the other live action ''Star Trek'' licenses (including ''Star Trek: The Original Series'', ''Star Trek: Deep Space Nine'', and all of the ''Star Trek'' films). In 1999, with the release of the ''Star Wars'' movie ''The Phantom Menace'', Decipher made the decision to expand its market towards a younger generation. Other games like ''Pokémon'' were successfully drawing younger kids into card gaming, but Decipher's existing two games were seen as requiring too much thinking and planning for a younger child to properly understand and enjoy. So in response, Decipher created the ''Young Jedi Collectible Card Game'' to target this audience. This game used images exclusively from the new movies, while the original ''Star Wars CCG'' continued to use images only from the original trilogy until 2001. In 1999, Decipher made an attempt to merge their previous successes by creating a licensed card game designed to target the party game audience. They acquired the license for ''Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me'' and created the ''Austin Powers Collectible Card Game''. However, because the company was better known as a card-gaming company than a party-game company, by that point the game was seen as a poor attempt at a card game and ultimately failed, with production being put indefinitely on hold after the initial release. In 2001, Decipher attempted to capitalize further on their successful ''Star Wars'' games by creating a third game called ''Jedi Knights Trading Card Game''. This game was distinct from the others because all of the card images were entirely computer generated. This enabled them to create scenes not seen in the movies, or from new angles. They also increased the breadth of licenses by acquiring the card game license for the new ''Lord of the Rings'' series of films being produced by New Line Cinemas beginning that year. This acquisition became even more important at the end of the year when it was announced that Decipher lost the ''Star Wars'' license, which ended production on all three ''Star Wars'' games. Decipher made more changes to its target markets in 2002, this time by expanding into role-playing games. Decipher acquired most of the gaming studio from Last Unicorn Games, and extended the licenses that they already held in order to create the ''Star Trek'' and ''Lord of the Rings'' role-playing games, using a new ''CODA System'' which they developed. They also relaunched the ''Star Trek CCG'' with a new 2nd Edition, drawing on many of the same game mechanics that had made the first edition so popular, but streamlining them to be easier to learn for new players. The following year, in 2003 Decipher made another attempt to enter the younger player CCG market, which was now dominated by ''Yu-Gi-Oh''. They acquired the licenses for and released new games based on the popular ''.hack'' and ''Beyblade'' series. Although the ''Beyblade Trading Card Game'' was short-lived, the ''.hack//Enemy Trading Card Game'' was well received and lasted several years. In 2004, they produced another license-based children's game, this time based on the ''Mega Man NT Warrior'' series. They also created their first non-franchised card game entitled ''Wars'', which utilized the same basic game mechanics that had made their original ''Star Wars CCG'' so popular. 2005 was a hard year on the company. With the wavering success of the ''.hack'' and ''Mega Man'' cartoons, they were forced to cancel both lines. The ''Wars'' game had failed to gain the audience they'd hoped for, because it lacked the brand recognition associated with most of their other games and so it was put indefinitely on hold. After a brief attempt at a resurgence in the form of digital media, they shut down their RPG lines as well. With the overall decline of the gaming industry, in addition to embezzlement which cost the company millions,〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Waterside bets on cards )〕 the company suffered significant financial losses and was forced to lay off as many as 40 employees. For the next two years Decipher focused on their two remaining properties, ''Star Trek'' and ''Lord of the Rings''. However, in 2007 with the expiration of Decipher's license, the company released their final expansion set for the ''Lord of the Rings TCG'', ''Age's End''. On December 12, 2007 Decipher also issued a press release announcing the end of the ''Star Trek CCG'' line of product with the next expansion, ''What You Leave Behind''. During the holiday season of 2007, Decipher replaced their traditional home page with a teaser promising a that "a player revolution is coming in 2008."〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Happy Holidays! )〕 On March 30, 2008, Decipher began looking for Founding Members for their new game series ''Fight Klub''.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Fight Klub )〕 Fight Klub was designed to be a new style of CCG, using a unique new marketing model. It was released in February 2009, and is themed on combat between (typically macho) characters from several film licences, such as Rambo, Mr. Blonde, and Chuck Norris. In January 2012, it was announced that their website would shortly also be hosting material related to the "How to Host a Murder" series, suggesting that the series (which had not seen a new release for nine years) may be returning.〔()〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Decipher, Inc.」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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