Ruby Party (ルビー・パーティー) is a video game developing team working for Koei that focus on the company's popular romance-adventure series for their female consumers (known now as their Neo Romance series —ネオロマンスシリーズ— to respect male fans). The team is famous for producing the first romance title targeting the female market in Japan, starting the trend for the Otome game genre. Members of the team are known to be predominately female, but the structure has changed over the years to include male developers. The team's name is meant to highlight the female members since rubies are considered the "queen of gems" and represent passionate love. Ruby Party also partakes or supervises the various media made based on their products such as the drama CDs, light novels, magazine publications, radio programs, live events, talk shows, comics, and anime. Select animated and comic adaptations have been localized overseas, but the games have largely remained in Japan —aside from a few rare exceptions. If enough interest arises for their games, there may be a chance someday they will be brought overseas and translated into English. As of April 1, 2016, Ruby Party doubles as a brand name for the company's romantic simulations, merchandise, licenses for multimedia projects, and stage event management. Mei Erikawa, Kou Shibusawa and Keiko Erikawa's eldest daughter, is the director for the Ruby Party brand.
2019
