ASCII (company)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

ASCII Corporation
株式会社アスキー
Type Kabushiki kaisha
Founded June 24, 1991
Headquarters Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan
Key people Kiyoshi Takano, President
Industry Computer magazines, Video games
Revenue 433 million yen (as of March 31, 2004)[1]
Website ascii.co.jp

ASCII Corporation (株式会社アスキー Kabushiki kaisha Asukī?) was a publishing company based in Tokyo, Japan, and was one of the key players in the creation of the MSX standard, home computer in Japan. It was a subsidiary of Kadokawa Group Holdings, and a member of the Kadokawa Group. The company was merged with MediaWorks on April 1, 2008, and became ASCII Media Works.[2][3] The company published Monthly ASCII as the main publication, which is one of the oldest and the most prestigious computer-oriented magazines.

[edit] History

ASCII was founded by Kazuhiko Nishi Nishi partnered with NEC executive Kazuya Watanabe to create the MSX, the most popular 8-bit home computer standard in the Japanese market. ASCII's early work was mainly in hardware development and creation. As the popularity of home videogame systems soared 1980s ASCII turned its attention towards the development and publishing of software for popular consoles like the Nintendo Entertainment System and Sega Genesis. ASCII became so popular in the software market that it branched out and created an American satellite in 1991 known as ASCII Entertainment.

Soon though ASCII's market in Japan declined while improving in the U.S.. To focus on supporting the interactive entertainment channel in America, startup company Agetec (for "Ascii Game Entertainment TEChnology") was spun off as an independent corporation in 1998 and later became a fully independent publisher one year later. As of March 2002, ASCII ceased all videogame development and publication in Japan. The company now focused on IT and computer magazine publishing. Before it stopped its tie to videogames, however, the gaming branch broke off into its own independent development and publishing house known as Media Leaves. ASCII was merged with MediaWorks on April 1, 2008, and became ASCII Media Works.[2][3]

[edit] References

  1. ^ English corperate information page for ASCII. ASCII. Retrieved on 2007-12-13.
  2. ^ a b Announcement of the merger between ASCII and MediaWorks (Japanese). Kadokawa Shoten. Retrieved on 2007-12-08.
  3. ^ a b Kadokawa Group to Merge ASCII, MediaWorks Subsidiaries. Anime News Network (October 2, 2007). Retrieved on 2008-03-30.

[edit] External links

 This article about a Japanese corporation- or company-related topic is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.
 This article about a publishing company is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.