Mistwalker Corporation is a Japanese video game development studio founded by Hironobu Sakaguchi (the creator of the popular Final Fantasy series) in 2004, with the financial backing of Microsoft. The logo and name were trademarked in 2001. Based in Honolulu, Hawaii, Mistwalker is a co-developer similar to Red Entertainment and Armor Project, outsourcing development duties to other companies (including Artoon and Feelplus), preferring to focus primarily on the story and music portions of game development, as well as generally overseeing the process.