The longest running software publishers?

[resident paul]

After seeing the debate with the longest running hardware support I thought who's the longest software publishers?
My thoughts are EA, Activision or I don't want say this microsoft!
If anybody out there knows proper fact/figures wouldn't mind sharing with us?

[Nemesis]

After seeing the debate with the longest running hardware support I thought who's the longest software publishers?
My thoughts are EA, Activision or I don't want say this microsoft!
If anybody out there knows proper fact/figures wouldn't mind sharing with us?

Activision for sure on the US side. Perhaps Elite systems & Ultimate/Rare on this side of the pond. Hudson, Capcom & Nintendo for Japan. All guesstimates on my part without any Google assistance.

[theantmeister]

Nintendo by a long way - 1889

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Nintendo

[Mayhem]

Activision, technically, are not the same company, as it filed for bankruptcy and chapter 11 protection/reorganisation in 1992, eventually changing its name back to Activision (it was still called Mediagenic at the time) and merging with The Disc Company. In the same way, the current Atari isn't really the same company from the 70s.

You're debating publishers here of course. Rare had their later games published through Nintendo or Microsoft afaik, so they were just developers. Which is why I can't say Jeff Minter/Llamasoft as an answer either... perhaps...

[Liamh1982]

Sega? Taito?
Both been producing games since the 70s...

[killbot]

Totally depends on how you count. Of all the videogame publishers Nintendo has been around the longest, but of course for half of the company's life it was making playing cards. Sega have been around since the 50s (I think) but again spent their formative years distributing mechanical amusements and not videogames. Atari have been around since 1972 and Activision since 1980 but of course neither are really quite the same company they were when they were formed.

The best I can figure it, if you count the modern Atari as being a continuation of the company that installed Pong in Andy Capp's Tavern then clearly they're the longest running. If not, I reckon it's Taito who first dipped their toe in the videogame market in 1973. They're swiftly followed by Nintendo who's first step into gaming was to distribute the Japanese version of the Magnavox Odyssey* which they launched in 1974. I believe Sega's first videogame was launched in 1975 which probably gives them the bronze.


*Which technically doesn't make them a 'software' publisher, I guess. But the Odyssey shipped with a variety of cards which played different games. The games were all pre-loaded on the console, the card just told it which to play - but at a push I guess you could call the cards 'software'. At any rate, since we're including arcade games (which are also solid-state machines which play only the software they're designed to play, at least in the pre-JAMMA/Neo Geo era) in the reckoning here I don't see why we can't include the Odyssey.

[resident paul]

I meant to say which ones are continuously still in the business of selling titles since they started eg: EA to now & not gone out business?

[killbot]

I meant to say which ones are continuously still in the business of selling titles since they started eg: EA to now & not gone out business?

Taito, then. Released their first game in '73 and have - so far as I know - never gone out of business or been merged into another company.

EDIT - No, Taito have apparently been acquired by Square Enix. I didn't know that. Still, they are still around as a company even if they've become a small subsidiary of another company, so I'd still argue they count. If not, it has to go to Nintendo.

[RichL]

Elite are still going, they are just about to release head over heels for iOS.

[Mire Mare]

I would have thought Microsoft too. If they're not the longest running, they surely will be in in a few years.

[The Laird]

I know that Activision are officially the longest running software company (not counting people who made the hardware)

[AceGrace]

Should I throw System3 in ?

[Matt_B]

The longest running software company is obviously IBM as they were right there in the beginning of electronic computers, and tabulating machines beforehand, and are still going today.

Although not primarily a games company, they did publish a version of Checkers for the 701 mainframe in 1952 which pre-dates all the other candidates by a couple of decades.

[jdanddiet]

Alternative have been going for a while! Surely longest for a budget type software house (although they aren't any more)

[Shinobi]

I add Namco to that list and they released the Witcher; so obviously still making games