Curated playlist

Video game publishers

SegaSega began in 1940 by supplying slot machines to American military bases in Hawaii. It later made Sonic the Hedgehog.
Sony Interactive EntertainmentThe first PlayStation began as a CD drive add-on for a Nintendo console. Sony rebuilt it as a standalone console.
IO InteractiveIO Interactive A/S, known as IOI, is a Danish video game developer and publisher based in Copenhagen. As of June 2025 it employed over 500 people. Its most recent game, 007 First Light, was released in 2026. The studio is best known for…
TencentTencent's founder once said, "To copy is not evil." The Chinese tech giant began by cloning a messenger.
Koei TecmoTecmo turned down a takeover bid and agreed to merge with Koei the same day. The Square Enix offer came in 2008.
ActivisionActivision began with an insult. According to programmer Larry Kaplan, Atari chief Ray Kassar, whose earlier job was at a textile company, called four of his best game designers "towel designers". Kassar also claimed that "anybody can do a…
UbisoftUbisoft, the French video game publisher headquartered in Saint-Mandé, exists because a mother set two conditions for her sons. Christian, Claude, Gérard, Michel and Yves Guillemot grew up in a family business that supported farmers in…
Rockstar GamesRockstar Games is an American video game publisher based in New York City, and one of its releases has sold over 220 million copies. That game is Grand Theft Auto V, which arrived in September 2013 and became the second-best-selling video…
NintendoNintendo began in 1889 as a maker of handmade playing cards. Fusajiro Yamauchi opened the shop in Kyoto.
Square (video game company)Square, maker of Final Fantasy, began in a former hairdresser's salon in Yokohama. It started in September 1983.
Mojang StudiosMojang Studios is a Swedish video game developer based in Stockholm, and it makes Minecraft, the best-selling video game of all time. As of 2021 the studio employed about 600 people, with further offices in London, Shanghai, Tokyo and…
Valve CorporationValve Corporation was founded on the 24th of August 1996, the same day its co-founder Gabe Newell got married. Decades later, that company makes Half-Life, Counter-Strike, Portal and Dota, runs the storefront Steam, and sells handheld…
Epic GamesEpic Games lost the last of its founding products in November 2013, when a man named Paul Sweeney packed and mailed the final copy of a game called ZZT. He was the father of Tim Sweeney, who had started a small company in his parents'…
Telltale GamesTelltale Games was an American studio based in San Rafael, California, and on the 21st of September 2018 it lost almost everything in a single day. Melissa Hutchison, the voice actor behind Clementine in The Walking Dead games, was in the…
Riot GamesThe founders of Riot Games, Brandon "Ryze" Beck and Marc "Tryndamere" Merrill, first met as roommates at the University of Southern California. Both were studying business. In September 2006 they started a company in Southern California to…
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.
EnixEnix began as a tabloid publisher, not a video game company. It started in 1975 with real estate advertising.
Square EnixIn 2022, Square Enix sold Tomb Raider and Deus Ex to Embracer Group for $300 million.
Annapurna InteractiveAnnapurna Interactive's twenty-five-person staff resigned together in a joint letter in August 2024.
SNKBefore arcade cabinets held many games, each held exactly one. SNK's Neo Geo MVS changed that in 1990.
CD ProjektCD Projekt began in May 1994 with only $2,000 and a friend's flat that served as a rent-free office. Two Poles, Marcin Iwiński and Michał Kiciński, founded the Warsaw company. Both had been selling games, and neither had ever built one.…
NetEaseNetEase is a Chinese internet company whose web address, 163.com, is a leftover from the dial-up era. Before broadband arrived, Chinese internet users had to dial 163 to get online. The number later became tied to the company's name. Ding…
Bethesda SoftworksBethesda Softworks started on the 28th of June 1986, at the kitchen table of a house in Bethesda, Maryland. Its founder, Christopher Weaver, treated the new company as an experiment. He wanted to learn whether the PC market was a viable…
KonamiKonami's legal team blocked Hideo Kojima from accepting his Game Awards 2015 prize. The audience booed.
Xbox Game StudiosSteve Ballmer reportedly urged Bill Gates to deemphasize games in Microsoft's early years.
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.
Electronic ArtsElectronic Arts, which once put its programmers in full-page ads, agreed in 2025 to a $55 billion buyout.
Blizzard EntertainmentBlizzard Entertainment got its name after a trademark threat forced a rename.
Take-Two InteractiveTake-Two Interactive began with a 21-year-old chief executive and a calculation about age. Its founder, Ryan Brant, explained his reasoning in his own words: "I wanted to get into a business where I could raise capital as a younger guy. In…
TaitoTaito, the Space Invaders company, began as a vodka distillery in Tokyo. A Ukrainian refugee founded it in 1953.
ZyngaZynga, named after a bulldog, hit ten million daily players in six weeks.
Hudson SoftHudson Soft was named after a steam locomotive, not a game. Two brothers began it as a Sapporo radio shop in 1973.
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.