What do the names of Japanese video game companies mean?

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Over the years, there are many video game companies that we have had the great honor of knowing and whose names, in one way or another, are etched in our minds. Nintendo, SEGA, Capcom and Konami are just a few of those clear examples where, one way or another, they have come to conquer us with their most successful works or even with their consoles.

But it is possible that, despite the habit of pronouncing these names regularly, at some point you wonder why it is called so or if it really has meaning behind it. With the intention that you can learn a bit more about the Japanese companies that have brought many games and consoles to life that you enjoy today, we’ll tell you the curious story behind their name.

Nintendo

This is one of the most notorious cases and, despite the company’s fame, it has never been officially confirmed. the reason for choosing this name

, although there are all kinds of theories about it. Despite the weather and all kinds of mentions, including an option that references the letters the company started its journey with, it was eventually said that the company name came from its kanji.

Ni – Charge, responsibility

Here – paradise

Make – Temple

Overall and as a rough translation, it would be “give the chance to heaven“. Without a doubt, a name proposal that has brought him luck over the years.

Capcom

In the case of Capcom, its name is at least striking and it is that it was born as an attempt to represent what they really want to offer with their works. Capcom was born from an abbreviation of “Computer capsulesWhich in a way refers to the challenge the player accepts when testing their skills against each of the games.

SEGA

This, like Capcom, didn’t seek to complicate the path of choosing a name too much, despite the fact that it sounds really good and even left a hole in the hearts of many gamers. SEGA arose from the abbreviation of the old company name, “Service games“, Despite the fact that the first name was” Standard Games “.

Usual game

The history of this name is accompanied by familiarity and it is that in his time, one of the founders of the study, Satoshi Tajiri, wrote freelance in Japanese magazines. His signature at that time was “Usual game

“. Later, this name was used to baptize a magazine that began between Tajiri and Ken Sugimori, renowned figures in the study. Of course, as you can guess, when Junichi Masuda, Tajiri, and Sugimori decided to join forces to start their own studio, it ended up becoming the company we all know today.

Konami

This is one of the more unique cases because, although many may think it is related to its significance in Japan, “small waveThe reality is that the choice of this name came in connection with the constitution of the first syllable of the names of the first three developers of the company. That is to say, Kagemasa Kozuki, Yoshinobu Nakama and Tatsuo Miyasako. This special relationship eventually gave life to the company’s motto, “small waves make great storms”.

Square Enix

The birth of this name is not a big mystery for gamers since it was born from the combination of Squaresoft and Enix. But together they have one little thing in common that makes them more striking. While Square comes because the company was started in Shikoku, a name that sounds similar to Shikaku (translated by Square in English

), Enix is the result of a pun between the Phoenix and the world’s first computer, ENIAC.

Sony

Initially, the company was called Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo, a name that in the long run caused big problems when it wanted to start expanding in the United States. Due to pronunciation issues, they wanted to shorten this one, but they found the problem that TTK It has already been taken by another telephone company. Therefore, they began to play with words, choosing to take the word “sonus” (sound) and mix it with the English word “sonny”, giving as a derivative the well-known brand Sony.

Bandai Namco

The case of Bandai Namco is striking since it was born from the Chinese phrase “Bandai Fueki“. This comes to be translated as “eternally unchanging”, hence the Bandai. But what about Namco? This was born from the abbreviation of “Nakamura Amusement Machine Manufacturing Company”. And yes, as you can well imagine, Nakamura refers to the family that founded this great company.