What’s in a (Game Company) Name?

June 27, 2007 · Filed Under Musings, Gaming

From an interesting post at videolamer.com:

Do you have an idea where famous game-company names such as Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo and Capcom got their funky monikers?

Well… you wouldn’t believe some of the things below!

Details after the jump…

All of the below are from the article at videolamer.com:

Microsoft - Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems created the microcomputer Altair 8800 and Bill Gates offered to implement BASIC on their system. Micro is either from the Micro in the MITS company name or the micro in microcomputer, or both. Either way, it’s not terribly exciting.

SONY - Despite ads that say otherwise, SONY does not stand for So New York. The name actually derives from the proud language of South America - Latin. Sonus, meaning “sound” in Latin, was mixed with the Japanese slang Sonny-boys, which means “whiz kids”, to create the SONY we know today.

Nintendo - A liberal translation of the term often quoted is “Leave luck to Heaven,” but it has long been debated. Some contest that the way Heaven is used makes it a place, not an overall concept like we have of Heaven. Because of this, it would be like saying “Leave luck to laundromat.” Ultimately, we may never know as its founder has been dead for over six decades. Maybe he’s in Heaven giving Nintendo good luck.

Sega - You should know this by now. A merger between Rosen Enterprises and Service Games of Japan created SEGA in 1965. Service Games, SEGA, Service Games, SEGA…get it?

Namco - Namco used a strategy similar to Sega’s when changing Nakamura Manufacturing to Namco. The “co” is reported to stand for coin-op, but according to some sources the name change took place before Namco even made coin op games, which indicates the “co” may just stand for “company”. Or perhaps “Communism”.

Capcom - Established as a subsidiary of I.R.M Corporation in 1979, the Capcom name is an abbreviation of multiple words, like so many other Japanese game company names. Capsule Computers became Capcom in 1983. It’s also not a coincidence Captain Commando’s name contains a Cap and a Com.

Konami - Founder Kagemasa Kozuki used the last names of four partners to form the word Konami: Kozuki, Nakama, Hiro Matsuda, and Shokichi Ishihara. The word also means “small waves,” which no doubt indicates the four last names were scoured for possible acronyms. Matishkonak would have been perfect if only it meant something in Japanese.

Atari - Originally called Syzygy, luckily it was already registered by another company. Nolan Bushnell chose Atari as the new name from a list of words from the Japanese game Go. In Japanese, Atari means “to aim at.”

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Comments

6 Responses to “What’s in a (Game Company) Name?”

fatman on June 27th, 2007 11:34 pm

And where did Level Up! and Gravity get their names?

I guess it could have been worse. Level Up could have been Kulay Co or something.
fatman on June 27th, 2007 11:34 pm

And where did Level Up! and Gravity get their names?

I guess it could have been worse. Level Up could have been Kulay Co or something.
priss on June 28th, 2007 12:11 am

didn’t know most of this stuff…
i even thought sony was from china / japan..

wew.. i learned a lot this evening. hehe.. XD
GM T on June 28th, 2007 2:14 pm

One of the constant things in an online game is “Leveling Up”… since you see the words “Level Up” in all MMOs, that’s where (partly) we got it
valfogg on June 28th, 2007 5:53 pm

in other words… grind games…

nyuknyuknyuknyuknyuknyuk
Ryan on June 28th, 2007 9:02 pm

Ragnarok? Gravity? Perfect World? Can we get some sneaks on how these name came to be?

There are a lot of names out there that have meanings but are closely hidden in between the lines.