Are Japanese Game Company Names Meaningless?

[leunas]

Sure, most gamers know that "Nintendo" loosely translates to "leave luck to the heavens" or even that SEGA is short for "SErvice GAmes." But what about Capcom? Or Namco? Or Koei? I mean, what the h311 is a "Koei"? Blog Japanmanship explains:

• Capcom: Short for "Capsule Computers"
  
• Koei: An anagram of Keio University where the founders studied
  
• Namco: Nakamura Manufacturing, a company that made coin-operated games
  

In the original post, there are a couple others, too! Like SNK, Taito, Genki and Overworks, so do check it out. Brian Ashcraft

Game Company Names [Japanmanship]

Article:
www.kotaku.com/gaming/nintendo/are-japanese-game-company-names-meaningless-237198.php

[leunas]

Japanese Game Company Naming, Demystified



Another excellent post on the Japanmanship blog deals with naming reasons behind major Japanese game companies, and rightly points out: "In Europe and America game companies, especially recently, like to go for, what I call, the “double-barrel comedy misfire”; i.e. vaguely naughty or silly names that mean nothing and are often instantly forgotten; things like “Mollusk Pants” or “Simian Nuts”."

He continues: "The Japanese, with a few notable exceptions, take their naming a little more seriously, and though there can be occasions for hilarious Engrish and more recently pretentious and sometimes misused Latin, their motives are often pure." Some of the obvious but well-explained ones include Capcom: "Capsule Computers, another good example of the Japanese desire to cut words short."

But a cute one I didn't know - Sega's Overworks division: "Previously Sega’s AM7 team they took on the name “Overworks” after their boss Mr. Oba, which sounds pretty much identical to the Japanese pronunciation of “over”. I wonder if he intended to advertise the working conditions so openly."

Also, Koei! "The old “splice two names together” trick perpetrated by Kou Shibusawa and Eiji Fukuzawa; except, of course, these people don’t exist and the name is simply a joke anagram of Keio University where husband and wife founders Yoichi and Keiko Erikawa studied." Hah - rawk - lots more if you click through.


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