Sometimes a singular vision opens up a whole world of potential. For Paris-based Dotemu, that vision has been to recreate, leading the company to sift through videogame history for nuggets deserving of being remastered or remade. From its early years, as both developer and publisher, it has pinballed between classics as if the whole of the 1980s and 1990s were its kingdom, giving titles from Karateka to Final Fantasy VIII a new sheen or lease of life. In 2014, however, the company itself would be remastered, as original founders Xavier Liard and Romain Tisserand sold up, handing the reins to current CEO Cyrille Imbert. Under his management, Dotemu has retained its original focus on recreating, but redrawn the lines of its mission.
Imbert started in the industry as an assistant brand manager at Ubisoft, then established Chouquette Games, a mobile-focused studio that failed to take off but nevertheless provided plenty of experience that would feed into the Dotemu acquisition. “At the time, my father was looking for an investment and knew I had worked in the videogame industry already, ” Imbert says, “so he asked me to look around.” Imbert was
