Famitsu

• 1. Introduction

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  Famitsu is the most widely read and respected video game news magazine in Japan, and its name is a portmanteau born from the machine that started it all. When the magazine first appeared on the 6th of June, 1986, it bore the full title Famicom Tsushin. The word Famicom is itself a compressed form of Family Computer, the dominant video game console in Japan at the time. Famitsu, then, is a name built from abbreviations stacked inside abbreviations. That layered origin points toward something interesting about the magazine: it has always been shaped by the market it covers, changing form as the gaming world changed around it. How did a column tucked inside another publication become the flagship of Japanese games journalism? And what does a perfect score from Famitsu actually mean to the industry? Those are the questions worth sitting with.

• 2. From Column to Powerhouse

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  Login, a computer game magazine that started in 1982 as an extra issue of the publication ASCII, gave Famitsu its unlikely starting point. A column inside Login called Famicom Tsushin focused specifically on the Famicom platform. It ran from March 1985 through the December 1986 issue and drew strong enough reader response that the publisher decided to build a dedicated magazine around it.

  The first issue of that standalone magazine arrived on the 6th of June, 1986. It sold fewer than 200,000 copies even though the print run was 700,000. The shortfall would have discouraged many publishers, but the editorial team found something instructive in the gap. Famitsu's editor noticed that many readers owned more than one game console, and that observation pushed the magazine toward broader platform coverage rather than Famicom exclusivity.

  The major competitor at the time was Family Computer Magazine, launched in July 1985 by Tokuma Shoten. Facing that rival, Famitsu expanded its content and its page count steadily, shifting from semimonthly publication to three issues per month. By the 19th of July 1991, on issue 136, the magazine converted to a full weekly schedule and adopted the name Shukan Famitsu. A monthly counterpart, Gekkan Famitsu, ran alongside it.

• 3. Names, Eras, and Publishers

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  Hirokazu Hamamura, who served as editor-in-chief from 1992 to 2002, described a private demonstration of Final Fantasy VI in 1993 as the moment he felt a new era beginning. That feeling fed into his belief that the Famicom Tsushin name no longer fit the magazine's scope. At the start of 1996, beginning with issue 369, the publications underwent another name change and were shortened to the titles still in use today. The name Famitsu had already been circulating informally among readers before the official change made it permanent.

  Ownership of the magazine shifted several times across its history. ASCII, the original publisher, sold it to Enterbrain in March 2000. Enterbrain held the title for thirteen years before their parent company Kadokawa took over from 2013 to 2017. Since 2017, a Kadokawa subsidiary known first as Gzbrain and later renamed Kadokawa Game Linkage in 2019 has been the publisher. The digital edition launched on the 28th of October 2011, when the company began releasing it weekly on BookWalker.

  Shukan Famitsu, the weekly edition, publishes every Thursday with a circulation of 500,000 copies per issue. Its focus is video game news and reviews. Gekkan Famitsu, the monthly edition, covers its own editorial territory alongside the weekly.

• 4. Necky the Fox

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  Susumu Matsushita, an artist, created the cartoon fox who became the magazine's enduring mascot. The character's name is Necky, and it was chosen through a reader poll rather than by editorial fiat. The name carries a layered wordplay: Necky is the reverse of the Japanese word for fox, and the original connection to Famicom Tsushin was meant to evoke the bark of a fox, the Japanese onomatopoeia for which is built into the character's identity.

  Famitsu covers alternate between two subjects depending on the issue number. Even-numbered issues feature pop idols or actresses on the cover. Odd-numbered issues feature Necky. Year-end editions and special issues show Necky dressed as characters from whatever video games are popular at that moment. The costumes shift with the market, making Necky a running visual record of which franchises were dominant at any given time. Necky also makes a cameo appearance in Super Mario Maker, which marks the mascot's arrival inside the games the magazine covers.

• 5. The Perfect Score

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  Four critics each assign a game a score from 0 to 10, and those four scores are added together to produce Famitsu's final rating out of 40. Thirty games have reached that ceiling of 40 across the magazine's history. The PlayStation 3 holds the record for perfect-scoring titles, with seven. The Xbox 360 and the Wii are tied for second, each with five.

  Looking at the full list of perfect scores, all but three of the thirty games came from Japanese companies. Nintendo published or developed ten of them. Square Enix accounts for four, Sega for three, and Konami for three, with Capcom contributing one. The three games from outside Japan to earn a perfect 40 are The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim by Bethesda Softworks, Grand Theft Auto V by Rockstar Games, and Ghost of Tsushima by Sucker Punch Productions.

  Several Western franchises landed near-perfect scores without crossing the threshold. Grand Theft Auto IV, Red Dead Redemption, L.A. Noire, and Red Dead Redemption 2, all from Rockstar Games, fall into that category. So do three Call of Duty titles from Activision, Gears of War 3 from Epic Games, and The Last of Us Part II and Uncharted 4: A Thief's End from Naughty Dog. Among franchises with multiple perfect scores, The Legend of Zelda leads with five titles, Metal Gear has three, and Final Fantasy has two. The most recent game to receive a perfect 40 is Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth.

• 6. Spin-offs and Specializations

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  Famitsu branched into dedicated publications for specific platforms and audiences over the decades. One title, aimed at an older readership and focused on retro gaming, has been published monthly since November 2010. Another covers Nintendo platforms, having traveled through earlier names such as Famitsu 64 and Famitsu Cube before settling on its current form following the Nintendo 3DS and Nintendo Switch eras. Two separate titles address mobile gaming, one through the GREE platform and one through Mobage.

  Several spin-offs did not survive. A publication focused on video game hints and strategy for younger readers was discontinued in September 2002 after monthly publication. A comic and manga magazine ran irregularly between 1992 and 1995. A Sega-focused title covered platforms including the Sega Saturn and the Dreamcast before it folded. A publication devoted to the Satellaview ran for exactly twelve issues from May 1995 to May 1996. One dedicated to the Virtual Boy published only a single issue in 1995.

  A monthly title covering Sony platforms began in May 1996, passed through names including Famitsu PS2 and Famitsu PSP+PS3, and was discontinued in March 2010. A DVD-format magazine launched in September 2000 and ran through May 2011, including video game trailers, gameplay tips, and developer interviews on a disc with each issue. A title covering Xbox and Xbox 360 ran from January 2002 until 2013. Beyond its own publications, Famitsu maintains an exclusive partnership with the UK trade magazine MCV, with news and material from each appearing in the other.

• 7. Awards and Audience

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  Famitsu administers its own awards program, distributing prizes across categories that include Innovation, Biggest Hit, Rookie Award, and Highest Quality. One or two Game of the Year designations serve as the top prize. Winners are determined by combining critical review scores, fan review scores, and sales figures, meaning the awards reflect both professional judgment and player response at the same time.

  The Famitsu awards and the 40-point review system together give the magazine a dual role: it functions as a trade publication for industry professionals and as a consumer guide for players. That combination, built on a weekly circulation of 500,000 copies, is what has kept Famitsu central to Japanese games culture for decades. The franchise that has accumulated the most perfect scores in the magazine's history, The Legend of Zelda, has done so across five separate titles, a record that says something about which long-running series has most consistently satisfied Famitsu's four-critic panel.