Tracking the Video Game Companies

1. Rare
Rare, Ltd. which was formerly known as Rareware is a British video game development company. It was founded in 1982 by brothers Tim and Chris Stamper as Ashby Computers and Graphics Ltd. (ACG). In 2002, Rare was acquired by Microsoft.

2. Sega
Sega was founded in 1940 as Standard Games (later Service Games) in Honolulu, Hawaii, United States, by Marty Bromely, Irving Bromberg, and James Humpert to provide coin-operated amusements for American servicemen on military bases. Bromely suggested that the company move to Tokyo, Japan in 1951 and in May 1952 "SErvice GAmes of Japan" was registered.

3. LucasArts

The company was founded in May 1982 as the video game development group of Lucasfilm Limited, the film production company of George Lucas. Lucas had wanted his company to branch out into other areas of entertainment, and so he cooperated with Atari to produce video games.
The original Lucasfilm Games logo was based upon the existing Lucasfilm movie logo. There were a number of variations on it.

4. Valve

Valve Corporation is an American video game development and digital distribution company based in Bellevue, Washington, USA that was founded in 1996, and made famous by its first product, Half-Life, which was released in November 1998, and by its distribution software, Steam.

5. Square-Enix

Square Enix was formed as the result of a merger between Square Co. and the Enix Corporation. 
When Square and Enix merged in ‘03, Square’s color scheme won the day. Here’s hoping the castle in the background is some sort of EarthBound revival clue that no one’s yet decoded.

6. Namco-Bandai

Bandai Namco Group, is a Japanese holding company formed from the merger of Namco and Bandai.

7. Blizzard

Blizzard used to be called “Silicon & Synapse” and have a grumpy, anthropomorphic brain wearing shoes as its mascot. But its current logo is still pretty old-school: It’s been basically unchanged since 1994.

8. Funcom

Founded in 1993 by Erik Gloersen, Ian Neil, Andre Backen, Gaute Godager and Olav Mørkrid. It is best known for the Massively Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Game (MMORPG) titles Age of Conan, Anarchy Online, and its The Longest Journey series of adventure games.

9. EA

Founded and incorporated on May 28, 1982 by Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer games industry and was notable for promoting the designers and programmers responsible for its games.
EA’s old logo confused people. “Many customers mistook the square/circle/triangle logo for a stylized “EOA.” Though they thought the “E” stood for “Electronic” and “A” for “Arts”, they had no idea what the “O” could stand for, except perhaps the o in “Electronic.”

10. Epic Games

Epic Games was initially founded under the name of 'Potomac Computer Systems' in 1991 by Tim Sweeney in Rockville, Maryland, releasing its flagship product, ZZT, the same year. During the latter portion of ZZT's life span, the company became known as Epic MegaGames and subsequently released numerous popular shareware games.
Back when it was called “Epic MegaGames,” Epic’s logo definitely had swagger, declaring itself “the new name in computer entertainment” with a decidedly ’90s box array; today, it rocks a badge that isn’t out of place alongside the shooters and action games that are its trademark.

11. THQ

Trinity Acquisition Corporation was founded in 1989. In 1991, it merged with T*HQ (Toy Head-Quarters), a toy manufacurer and video game company founded around the same time as Trinity Acquisition. The combined company initially adopted the name T*HQ but was eventually renamed to THQ in the mid-1990s

12. SNK

SNK Playmore Corporation is a Japanese video game hardware and software company. SNK is an acronym of Shin Nihon Kikaku, Japanese for "New Japan Project", which was SNK's original name. The company's legal and trading name became SNK in 1986.
The original SNK was founded in Osaka, Japan, in July 1978 by Eikichi Kawasaki, and existed until October 22, 2001. Anticipating the end of his first company, Kawasaki founded the company Playmore in August 2001, which in 2003 became SNK Playmore.

13. Bethesda

Founded in 1986 by Christopher Weaver in Bethesda, Maryland and moved to Rockville, Maryland in 1990

14. Ubisoft

The five brothers of the Guillemot family founded Ubisoft as a computer game publisher in 1986 in France (Brittany). 

15. Nintendo

Founded on September 23, 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi, it produced handmade hanafuda cards. By 1963, the company had tried several small niche businesses, such as a cab company and a love hotel. It was originally named Nintendo Koppai. The name "Nintendo" translated from Japanese to English means "Leave luck to Heaven"