Companies can be known for one thing while having their fingers in all sorts of other businesses. The food industry is essentially a web of companies controlled by a handful of larger corporations. Yamaha is famous for their motorbikes and keyboards. Then Sony made their name with audio technology, decades before the term “PlayStation” meant anything.
Still, when it comes to most video game companies, they tend to stick to the game development and publishing spheres. It’s easier to take risks with new games or devices than by switching industries entirely. But when a few of them thought they could make cash elsewhere, they went on a few odd side-ventures.
Sinclair C5
Photo byRept0n1x.
When North America suffered its infamous gaming crash, Sinclair’s ZX Spectrum was booming. Despite its limited color palette and tech, its cheap price and cheaper games made it the UK’s most popular platform, outdoing the NES and Master System. However, company owner Sir Clive Sinclair didn’t get into tech to make games. He wanted to be a tech pioneer and thought he could change the motor industry with electric vehicles like the Sinclair C5.
Essentially an electric tricycle, it might’ve done well as a novelty device for tracks. But Sinclair wanted it to be a proper, roadworthy vehicle, which was a problem. Its battery life was limited, it only had room for the driver, and its tiny, low-profile size made it a risk when going past larger vehicles like trucks. This, and other failed ventures, led to the company selling off its biggest assets, including the Spectrum, to rival company Amstrad.
Daiya Taxi
Photo from4gamer.net interview with Satoru Okada.
Nintendo are known globally for their video games today, and they have been one of the gaming industry’s biggest names sinceDonkey Kong. However, they spent most of their 125+ years making playing cards, from the Western kind used for poker and blackjack, to Hanafuda cards for Koi-Koi and Oicho-Kabu. But by the 1960s, the cards weren’t helping keep their profits up, and they needed a new venture.
It’s been reported they ran love hotels, but this might actually be an urban legend. However, they did set up a taxicab service called Daiya Taxis. They did earn a profit, but they fell afoul of driver labor union laws, making the company too expensive for Nintendo to run. So, they sold off their interests in Daiya Taxis and moved on. They would end up bouncing back when one of their workers showed he had a knackfor making toys.
5Konami Has Fitness Clubs Across Japan
Konami Sports Clubs
It’s been nearly a decade since Hideo Kojima left the company, but the fallout from his departure has still left a mark on Konami. The way they treated workers and former workers at the time, and their shift into pachinko and casino games, left a bad taste in fans’ mouths. Even a decade later, things haven’t gotten much rosier for the company, given the issues withthe upcomingSilent Hill 2remake.
But one side of their business has been going well. Konami has been involved in fitness since 2000, when they acquired People Co. Ltd and Daiei Olympic Sports Club Inc. Using these new assets, they produced a chain of Konami Sports Club gyms across Japan that provide different fitness programs for men, women, children, and families altogether. They’ve even funded sports programs for schools. It makes for a nice silver lining to an otherwise cloudy company.
4Capcom Got Into Bowling
Bowlingo
Arcades used to be big, and not just for video games. Bally Midway made their name with pinball machines and shooting cabinets before scaring censors withMortal Kombat.But just as they were moving more into video games withRampage,Cruisin’ USA, andother classic hits, Capcom was moving in the opposite direction. The company had already made their name with their arcade games when they gave bowling a go.
TheirBowlingoinstallations were mini bowling alleys where players didn’t need special shoes or the like — just enough coins to get a game started. It was profitable enough when Capcom debuted their mini-alleys in 1990, though they would make a bigger profit the following year with a certain fighting game.
3Squaresoft Went To The Movies & Almost Went Bust
Square Pictures
Set up by Squaresoft, Square Pictures worked with Columbia Pictures to produceFinal Fantasy: The Spirits Within. Based on a story byFFcreator andFF:TSW’s director Hironobu Sakaguchi, it was going to be the first of a range of photo-realistic CGI movies. It used all sorts of tech that was advanced for the time, but also set the movie over budget. Once it was released, its dry story and lack of fantasy — final or otherwise — didn’t help the company earn back its cash.
Contrary to popular belief, its failure wasn’t why the company ended up merging with Enix. It actually put merger talks with their old rivals on ice for years because they didn’t want to risk going down with them. It wasn’t until Square bounced back withFinal Fantasy 10andKingdom Heartsthat Enix came back to the table. But if Square hadn’t tried to revolutionize cinema, the two companies might have combined sooner.
2Enix Still Publishes Manga Today
Gangan Comics
Like Nintendo, Enix wasn’t originally in game development. They started off as a publishing company, with some dabbling in real estate, until founder Yasuhiro Fukushima saw gaming was on the rise in the early 1980s. By the end of the decade, his company was one of the most famous developers in Japan, with legendary games likeDragon Questpopularizing RPGs enough to inspire their competition, like future partners Squaresoft.
They kept hold of their publishing business to print their own guidebooks for their games. But, in order to diversify their earnings beyondDQ, they set up a manga imprint calledGangan Comics. Their different anthologies, fromMonthly Shōnen GangantoGangan Online, have produced a range of famous strips.Fullmetal Alchemist, Akame Ga Kill,The Apothecary Diaries, and more either got their start with Gangan — or reached wider audiences through the imprint.
1Rebellion Developments Bought Judge Dredd
There are easier ways of getting into the comic book industry. Instead of setting up an imprint and hoping its artists produce anFMA-quality hit, how about just buying a famous comic and all of its hit strips instead? It worked for Rebellion Developments when they bought the2000 ADcomic series from their original publishers, Egmont (formerly Fleetway Publications).
Best known forAliens Vs Predatorand theSniper Eliteseries, Rebellion Developments has since owned all of2000 AD’s characters, fromJudge DreddtoRogue Trooper. From there, they expanded their publishing wing with fantasy books, tabletop RPGs, and the rest of Egmont’s library. Rebellion even set up a studio to filmJudge Dredd: Mega-City One, a series based around the character, but it’s received few updates since its 2017 announcement.
