Curated playlist
Video game companies of Japan
- HexaDriveA Capcom programmer left to start HexaDrive in Osaka in February 2007. Its first release was Rez HD in 2008.
- M2 (game developer)M2, known for old games, built three new Konami games for WiiWare. They were Gradius, Castlevania and Contra ReBirth.
- SegaSega began in 1940 by supplying slot machines to American military bases in Hawaii. It later made Sonic the Hedgehog.
- Polygon MagicPolygon Magic made a Silent Hill arcade game and a Disney basketball game. It also made a GREE fishing app.
- DimpsTakashi Nishiyama quit SNK in 2000, and his whole team followed. They founded the game studio Dimps in Osaka.
- System SacomOne System Sacom series blended sound and on-screen text, leaving a mark on sound novels and visual novels.
- Sony Interactive EntertainmentThe first PlayStation began as a CD drive add-on for a Nintendo console. Sony rebuilt it as a standalone console.
- Team NinjaTeam Ninja began as a rescue plan for a struggling company. Tecmo asked Tomonobu Itagaki to rival Virtua Fighter.
- Kojima ProductionsKojima Productions was erased by Konami, then reborn under the same name.
- Koei TecmoTecmo turned down a takeover bid and agreed to merge with Koei the same day. The Square Enix offer came in 2008.
- NintendoNintendo began in 1889 as a maker of handmade playing cards. Fusajiro Yamauchi opened the shop in Kyoto.
- Yuke'sThe wrestling game studio Yuke's took its name from a high school nickname. It began in Osaka in 1993.
- KodanshaKodansha, Japan's largest publisher, began as a spin-off of a public speaking society. Seiji Noma founded it in 1909.
- Kadokawa ShotenKadokawa Shoten, the publisher behind Cowboy Bebop manga, lost its company status in 2013.
- Nihon FalcomNihon Falcom took its name from the Millennium Falcon, with one letter changed.
- Square EnixIn 2022, Square Enix sold Tomb Raider and Deus Ex to Embracer Group for $300 million.
- SNKBefore arcade cabinets held many games, each held exactly one. SNK's Neo Geo MVS changed that in 1990.
- PlatinumGamesPlatinumGames is a Japanese video game developer based in Osaka, and one of its founders once drew a surprisingly hard line about who belongs there. Atsushi Inaba put it this way: "the people who are not looking for constant change are not…
- Sammy CorporationA slot machine maker bought control of Sega for $1.1 billion. Sammy Corporation did it in mid-2004.
- Good Smile CompanyGood Smile Company began as an event management and talent agency. Takanori Aki founded it in May 2001.
- KonamiKonami's legal team blocked Hideo Kojima from accepting his Game Awards 2015 prize. The audience booed.
- Pony CanyonThe Asian financial crisis of 1997 closed four of Pony Canyon's five overseas branches.
- 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.
- TaitoTaito, the Space Invaders company, began as a vodka distillery in Tokyo. A Ukrainian refugee founded it in 1953.
- GainaxGainax began with a student film about a girl who waters a withered radish. In it, the radish turns into a spaceship.
- FromSoftwareFromSoftware spent nearly a decade making office software before its first game. King's Field then changed the company.
- ASCII CorporationASCII Corporation began as Microsoft's first sales office outside the United States.