Spike was founded in December 1989 as Mizuki Ltd. (有限会社みずき, Yūgen-gaisha Mizuki). Its name was changed to Mizuki Co., Ltd. (株式会社みずき, Kabushiki-gaisha Mizuki) on October 18, 1991 and then to Spike Co., Ltd. in April 1997. Spike sold its book publishing business to Aspect in March 1999, and Spike was acquired by Sammy in April. Spike established a game development subsidiary named Vaill (ヴァイル株式会社) which consisted of former Human staff in November 1999, and it was eventually absorbed back into Spike in July 2001. In 2005, Spike was bought by Dwango. In 2012, it merged with its sister company Chunsoft and became Spike Chunsoft. Two games were in development at the time of the merger: Conception: Ore no Kodomo o Undekure! and Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair.