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Who is the oldest game developer still in business?
- Thread starter pixlexic
- Start date
thesaucetastic
Unconfirmed Member
Nintendo has technically been around for 125 as a toy developer (among...other things).
So depends if you count games as toys?
So depends if you count games as toys?
DidntKnowJack
Member
Nintendo.
Playing cards are a game, right?
Playing cards are a game, right?
Besides Nintendo, I think Sega and Konami are atleast as old as Activision
SliceSabre
Banned
Nintendo.
Its like, not even a competition.
Its like, not even a competition.
well if we're going that route, Sega is 74 years old and has been making arcade games the entire time. Their arcade games predates video games, back when they made electro-mechanical arcade units:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gspc_2PLyeA
Sega arcade game from 1970, 7 years prior to the 2600.
Ray Wonder
Founder of the Wounded Tagless Children
If the thread title question has no stipulations, I think this is the right answer. Does it matter what they were doing before? They were in business. That makes them the oldest.
SmokedMeat
Gamer™
EA started in the early '80s. I used to have the Joystik magazine that introduced them when they just started.
DiipuSurotu
Banned
nevermind
Mr Nash
square pies = communism
Those guys are up there, and I'd toss Namco in the mix as well.
DidntKnowJack
Member
Yeah but does Activision even develop games anymore? Aren't they just publishing these days?
Add Bally to the mix too.
Atari was sold a few times long ago. It's basically just an ip they tack onto some things.
Wasn't midway, bally, and atari at one all the same company?
Or was that just midway and atari?
BibiMaghoo
Member
I think Sega were making video games before Nintendo, though could be wrong.
EDIT : yes they were.
EDIT : yes they were.
Once in the late eighties I believe, but I don't have any sources for that.
Edit: Found it
"In 1988, Activision began involvement in other types of software besides video games, such as business applications. As a result, Activision changed its corporate name to Mediagenic to have a name that globally represented all its activities. Under the Mediagenic holding company, Activision continued to publish video games for various platforms notably the Nintendo Entertainment System, the Sega Master System, the Atari 7800, Atari ST, Commodore 64 and Amiga.
Following a multi-million judgment on damages in a patent infringement suit, wherein infringement had been determined many years prior during the Levy era, a financially weakened Mediagenic was taken over by an investor group led by Robert (Bobby) Kotick. After taking over the company, the new management filed for a Chapter 11 reorganization."
Here's a Sega developed 1970 electro mechanical arcade game
Think they're the only developer still around that can say they made mechanical arcade games.
Think they're the only developer still around that can say they made mechanical arcade games.
Blackstarhat
Member
Activision
Leafhopper
Banned
Nintendo was doing trading cards in 1890s.
If you're talking games makers, then Nintendo is probably the oldest
if you're talking electronic games makers, then Sega is probably the oldest.
Ceaseless Discharge
Banned
Jeff Minter/Llamasoft.
Jaded Alyx
Member
lol 20 years ago was 1994....
If 'trading cards' count as games then Nintendo nor any other electric game developer has no chance of being the oldest.
Shmuely Bully
Member
It would have to be either Sega or Mattel (assuming they still make games).
FlyingSaucer
Banned
Lord British ? For a given amount of 'still in business'.
Shmuely Bully
Member
Richard Garriott predates him by a few years.
MrNyarlathotep
Banned
Modern Atari are Infogrames, who've been around since the early 80s.
Shmuely Bully
Member
Mattel makes or at least made videogames. So far as I know Lego has only ever licensed games.
DiipuSurotu
Banned
Do game composers count? Koichi Sugiyama is 83.
MrNyarlathotep
Banned
Ridge Racer and Tekken
The Albatross
Member
Sega is pretty damn old because they were developing pinball and simplistic electric board games in the 1960s, though I'm sure their development arms have changed pretty often. Sega came out with "Periscope" the arcade game back in 1968.
http://segaretro.org/Periscope
Trip Hawkins has also been in the industry since nearly the dawn of it, but has never been a developer... Producer, strategy, and then board member.
http://segaretro.org/Periscope
Trip Hawkins has also been in the industry since nearly the dawn of it, but has never been a developer... Producer, strategy, and then board member.
Jarvis and Miyamoto are probably the guys who've been in the business long enough and are still making games.
JumpJeff84
Member
For fun someone should find the original 'mission statements' of Activision and EA and post them here so we can read them and laugh (despair) at how much their core values have changed over the decades.
Peter Molyneux?
They were developing pinball games and slot machines in the 40s. Their name is a reference to their start as making games for troops overseas in japan - SErvice GAmes.
MrNyarlathotep
Banned
Trip Hawkins and Nolan Bushell are technically still making games, but they've transitoned into more what used to be called edutainment than pure gaming.
manueldelalas
Time Traveler
Capsule Computers and Service Games are pretty old.