Curated playlist
Japanese brands
- PlayStation (console)The PlayStation exists because Nintendo dumped Sony on stage. Sony then decided to build its own console.
- SegaSega began in 1940 by supplying slot machines to American military bases in Hawaii. It later made Sonic the Hedgehog.
- FujifilmFujifilm began in 1934 as a film maker and now also makes drugs and stem cells.
- PokémonPokémon Red and Green came in two versions so players would trade. Each version held Pokémon that the other did not.
- PlayStation ClassicThe PlayStation Classic shipped without an AC adapter. Sony's $100 mini console also lacked analog sticks.
- NintendoNintendo began in 1889 as a maker of handmade playing cards. Fusajiro Yamauchi opened the shop in Kyoto.
- Japan AirlinesAfter its 2010 bankruptcy, Japan Airlines hired a chief with no airline experience. He founded Kyocera.
- KodanshaKodansha, Japan's largest publisher, began as a spin-off of a public speaking society. Seiji Noma founded it in 1909.
- Dragon QuestOver 300 Japanese schoolchildren were arrested for truancy when Dragon Quest III went on sale.
- Square EnixIn 2022, Square Enix sold Tomb Raider and Deus Ex to Embracer Group for $300 million.
- PlayStationThe morning after Sony unveiled its PlayStation in 1991, Nintendo dropped the deal.
- SNKBefore arcade cabinets held many games, each held exactly one. SNK's Neo Geo MVS changed that in 1990.
- Fire EmblemFire Emblem is a Japanese fantasy strategy franchise published by Nintendo, and in 2010 it was handed a hard number. Nintendo told the developers at Intelligent Systems that their next game had to sell more than 250,000 units. If it fell…
- SonySony built the PlayStation after Nintendo dropped it as a partner in 1991.
- Sammy CorporationA slot machine maker bought control of Sega for $1.1 billion. Sammy Corporation did it in mid-2004.
- KonamiKonami's legal team blocked Hideo Kojima from accepting his Game Awards 2015 prize. The audience booed.
- NamcoNamco began with two hand-cranked rocking horses on a Yokohama rooftop. He spent his entire 300,000 yen budget.
- CapcomCapcom was close to financial collapse in the late 1980s. A strip mahjong game called Mahjong Gakuen pulled it back.
- SoftBank GroupIn 2000, Masayoshi Son wired $20 million to a young Chinese startup called Alibaba.
- Kadokawa CorporationKadokawa began in 1945 as a small postwar book publisher. It now owns anime studios, game makers and a streaming site.
- Final FantasyHironobu Sakaguchi planned to quit games if Final Fantasy failed. The 1987 role-playing game saved Square instead.
- FromSoftwareFromSoftware spent nearly a decade making office software before its first game. King's Field then changed the company.
- Trails (series)Trails is a series of science fantasy role-playing games from the Japanese studio Nihon Falcom, and its producer Toshihiro Kondo calls it his life's work. Falcom set out to build the most ambitious story the medium had seen. Thirteen main…