When you take a nice look back on your childhood you'll definitely notice that a lot of games you spent your days and nights playing had the “Made in Japan” label on their covers. The Japanese video game industry is responsible for so many of your awesome memories, although American and European game developers have the upper hand in most recent years.
The Japanese industry’s extraordinary record is mostly based on the strength of companies’ signature game series, those titles that stood the test of time and charmed generation after generation. That is what earned the Japanese game-developing industry adoration and reverence. Japan is probably the only country where people from the video game developing universe are celebrities, having legends and myths about them, of course, with the exception of Valve’s Gabe Newell (May He bless us and keep us, and may the Holy Crowbar guide you).
So without further ado, we would like to remind you of some of the best gaming dynasties from the Land of the Rising Sun.
Konami
The company started out by making jukeboxes before transitioning to making arcade cabinets, so it was a natural step to proceed on to developing their own arcade games with Contra being one of the most beloved (and hardest) titles in the early age of video gaming. Soccer is the world's most popular sport, and there are two simulation series battling it out for the allegiance of fans—FIFA and Konami's Pro Evolution Soccer, better known as PES, and it has been a contest only in more recent years, as EA's FIFA stepped up its game. Konami’s left hook and right uppercut are of course the Silent Hill and Metal Gear franchises, the latter spanning over 28 years!
That said, Konami is no longer a video game publisher as much anymore moving forward, instead focusing on pachinko machines and a PES title here and there.
Square Enix
1987 was a good year for video games as that is when Final Fantasy was released! Developer Square then started one of the most successful game series in the history, with over 100 million copies sold and it established itself as one of the best Japanese video game developers. The year before that, another Japanese company Enix published yet another monumental RPG, Dragon Quest. The two companies merged in 2003 and continued publishing these titles and their third ace as well, Kingdom Hearts. And now the publisher is working with Eidos Montreal, who has developed two great series including the modern Tomb Raider reboot and Deux Ex series.
SEGA
The failure of the Sega Dreamcast console surely robbed us of some memorable games, as one of the companies synonymous with video games restructured itself and focused on providing software as a third-party developer. Sonic the Hedgehog is still one of the most recognizable video game characters ever developed, Crazy Taxi has a crazy big following, and older gamers have the same respect for Virtua Fighter as they do for the other maybe better-known fighting games. Other very honorable mentions are the Phantasy Star and Yakuza series, both with millions of devoted players.
Capcom
Even though Capcom has been under some scrutiny in the past few years, that doesn’t mean that company’s vast positive effect on the gaming world should be discarded. It would practically be impossible to do that, such is the importance of this Osaka-based company. Spearheading Capcom’s ascent to the video game developing hall of fame is the Resident Evil franchise, with 46 million units sold, a series that launched another smash hit with multiple releases: Devil May Cry. Capcom’s Street Fighter franchise is also one of the few fighting games that stood the test of time and sold over 5,700,000 copies since 2009. Mega Man is another franchise that spans over 28 years and numerous releases have sold more than 30 million copies worldwide.
Nintendo
With over a century in the entertainment and games industry, the company was founded in 1889 and produced hanafuda playing cards. Nintendo is as big as it gets, and just a few years ago it had the highest revenue levels of all video game developers. But it took a long time to get there as the company tried several small niche businesses, such as cab services and love hotels along the way.
Nintendo (which roughly translates to “leave the luck to heaven”) ventured into video game and console developing during the '70s, kickstarting the video game industry in 1983 after American companies faltered. This resulted in millions of happy and magical childhoods as Donkey Kong, Super Mario, and The Legend of Zelda cemented themselves as true powerhouses in the gaming world, creating diehard fans, making Nintendo a firmly planted titan and cornerstone of the industry.
