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ASCII Corporation

(Redirected fromASCII (company))
This article is about the company. For the American Standard Code for Information Interchange, seeASCII.

ASCII Corporation, Ltd.[a]was a Japanesepublishing companybased inChiyoda, Tokyo.It became a subsidiary ofKadokawa Group Holdingsin 2004, and merged with another Kadokawa subsidiaryMediaWorkson April 1, 2008, becomingASCII Media Works.[1][2]The company publishedMonthly ASCIIas the main publication. ASCII is best known for creating theDerby Stallionvideo game series, theMSXcomputer, and theRPG Makerline of programming software.

ASCII Corporation
Native name
Chu thức hội xã アスキー
Kabushiki-gaishaAsukī
FormerlyASCII Publishing Co., Ltd. (1977—1982)
Company typeSubsidiary
IndustryVideo games
FoundedMay 24, 1977;47 years ago(1977-05-24)
Founder
DefunctMarch 31, 2008;16 years ago(2008-03-31)
FateMerged withMediaWorks
Successor
HeadquartersChiyoda, Tokyo,Japan
Area served
Japan
Key people
  • Kiyoshi Takano (president)
  • Tatsuo Sato (chairman)
Products
Revenue¥433 million (2006)
Number of employees
197 (2006)
Parent
Subsidiaries
  • Astro Arts
  • Soft Wing
Websiteascii.jp ascii.jp (archived)
Footnotes / references
"Company Profile"(in Japanese). ASCII Corporation. 2006. Archived fromthe originalon February 17, 2008.RetrievedAugust 5,2020.

History

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1977–1990: Founding and first projects

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ASCII was founded in 1977 byKazuhiko Nishiand Keiichiro Tsukamoto. Originally the publisher of a magazine with the same name,ASCII,talks betweenBill Gatesand Nishi led to the creation ofMicrosoft'sfirst overseas sales office,ASCII Microsoft,in 1978.[3][4]In 1980, ASCII made 1.2 billion yen of sales from licensingMicrosoft BASIC.It was 40 percent of Microsoft's sales, and Nishi became Microsoft's Vice President of Sales for Far East.[5]In 1983, ASCII and Microsoft introduced theMSX,a standardized specification for 8-bit home computers. In 1984, ASCII entered the semiconductor business, followed by a further expansion into commercial online service in 1985 under the brand of ASCII-NET. As the popularity of home video game systems soared in the 1980s, ASCII became active in the development and publishing of software and peripherals for popular consoles such as theFamily ComputerandMega Drive.After Microsoft's public stock offering in 1986, Microsoft founded its own Japanese subsidiary,Microsoft Co., Ltd.,traded as Microsoft Kabushiki Kaisha (MSKK), and dissolved its partnership with ASCII.[3]At around the same time, the company was also obliged to reform itself as a result of its aggressive diversification in the first half of the 1980s.[6]The company went public in 1989.

1989–2000: Satellites and later projects

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ASCII's revenue in its fiscal year ending March 1996 was 56 billion yen, broken down by sectors: publications (52.5% or 27.0 billion yen), game entertainment (27.8% or 14.3 billion yen), systems and semiconductors (10.8% or 6 billion yen) and others.[6]Despite its struggles to remain focused on its core businesses, the company continued to suffer from accumulated debts, until an arrangement was made thatCSK Corporationwould execute a major investment into ASCII in 1997.[7]

In the mid-1990s, ASCII acquired the company Something Good, and renamed it toASCII Something Good,through which they developed threeSega Saturngames:AI Shogi(1995),AI Igo(1997),AI Shogi 2(1998).

ASCII originally used the nameNexofton early American releases. In 1991, they renamed Nexoft toASCII Entertainment,although releases around this time used theAsciiwarename. To focus on supporting the interactive entertainment channel in America, startup companyAgetec(for "Ascii Game Entertainment Technology" ) was spun off as an independent corporation in 1998 and later became a fully independent publisher one year later. Co-founder Tsukamoto had left ASCII to create a company of his own in 1992, namedImpress.[8]

2000–2008: Ownership changes and dissolution

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On November 26, 2001, CSK Corporation and Unison Capital Partners L.P. announced the approval of transferring the control of its subsidiary ASCII to Unison Capital Partners L.P., effective on March 30, 2002, as part of a strategy to focus CSK's operations onB2Benterprises.[9][10]The transfer was approved on December 21, 2001.[11]As a part of deal, ASCII's outstanding debt owed to CSK was forgiven, and under Unison's control, the ASCII's Enterbrain and IT publishing divisions would maintain autonomy, while ASCII was restructured to concentrate on PC and IT publishing businesses.

On May 28, 2002, Unison Media Partners announced ASCII became a fully owned subsidiary of via share exchange, and ASCII would be delisted, effective on October 1, 2002.[12]On November 18, 2002, the Astroarts subsidiary was renamed to ASCII, while ASCII was renamed to MediaLeaves.[13]The former Astroarts subsidiary would inherit the publishing business of the former ASCII. On January 29, 2004, Unison Capital Partners, L.P. announced the sale of ASCII's parent company MediaLeaves toKadokawa Group Holdings,to be completed in March 2004.[14][15]

On September 27, 2007,Kadokawa Group Holdingsannounced the merger between subsidiariesMediaWorksand ASCII under the nameASCII Media Works,effective on April 1, 2008.[1][2]The merger was approved in 2008.[16] On January 10, 2010, the formerly named ASCII company MediaLeaves was merged into Enterbrain, dissolving the last of the ASCII entity.[17]

Products

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MSX

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Main article:MSX

MSX is a standardizedhome computerarchitecture, announced by Microsoft and ASCII on June 16, 1983.[18][19]It was conceived and marketed by Kazuhiko Nishi, then vice-president at Microsoft Japan and director at ASCII Corporation. Nishi conceived the project as an attempt to create unified standards among various home computing system manufacturers of the period.[20][21]MSX systems were popular in Japan and several other countries. It is difficult to determine how many MSX computers were sold worldwide, but eventually, 5 million MSX-based units were sold in Japan alone. Despite Microsoft's involvement, few MSX-based machines were released in the United States.[22]Before the great success ofNintendo'sFamily Computer,MSX was the platform for which majorJapanese game studiossuch asKonamiandHudson Softproduced video games. TheMetal Gearseries,for example, was first written for MSX hardware.[23]

See also

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Notes

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  1. ^Japanese:Chu thức hội xã アスキー,Hepburn:Kabushiki kaisha Asukī

References

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  1. ^abTử hội xã の hợp tịnh に quan するお tri らせ(PDF)(in Japanese).Kadokawa Group Holdings.Archived fromthe original(PDF)on November 8, 2007.RetrievedDecember 8,2007.
  2. ^ab"Kadokawa Group to Merge ASCII, MediaWorks Subsidiaries".Anime News Network.October 2, 2007.Archivedfrom the original on April 7, 2008.RetrievedMarch 30,2008.
  3. ^abAllan, Roy A. (2001).A History of the Personal Computer.Allan Publishing. pp. 31, 65.ISBN0-9689108-0-7.
  4. ^Quote from Bill Gates'The Road Ahead,found inLessem, Ronnie (1998).Management development through cultural diversity.Routledge. pp. 160–161.ISBN0-415-17875-4.
  5. ^コンピュータ・ニュース xã, ed. (1988). "“パソコン sản nghiệp sử” niên biểu ".100 vạn nhân の mê を giải く ザ・PCの hệ phổ(in Japanese). コンピュータ・ニュース xã. p. 45.ISBN4-8061-0316-0.
  6. ^abToda, Satoru ( hộ điền 覚) (1997).A quick map to Information and Telecommunications makrket( tình báo ・ thông tín nghiệp giới tảo わかりマップ).Kō Shobō (こう thư phòng ). pp. 130–135.ISBN4-7696-0606-0.
  7. ^"Ascii to join CSK group".The Japan Times.December 25, 1997.RetrievedApril 22,2009.
  8. ^Impress Holdings websiteArchivedFebruary 16, 2009, at theWayback Machine
  9. ^"CSK Corporation to Transfer ASCII to Unison Capital Partners L.P."CSK. November 26, 2001. Archived fromthe originalon December 1, 2008.RetrievedApril 22,2009.
  10. ^"アスキーの kinh 営権 thủ đắc に quan する cơ bổn hợp ý thư đế kết について"(PDF).November 26, 2001.
  11. ^"CSK Corporation Formalizes Contract to Transfer ASCII to Unison Capital Partners L.P."CSK. December 21, 2001. Archived fromthe originalon December 1, 2008.
  12. ^"Chu thức hội xã アスキーとの chu thức giao hoán khế ước đế kết について"(PDF).Unison. May 28, 2002. Archived fromthe original(PDF)on March 4, 2016.RetrievedNovember 12,2011.
  13. ^"アスキーが xã danh 変 canh".November 18, 2002.
  14. ^"Chu thức hội xã メディアリーヴス chu thức の công khai mãi phó への ứng mộ について"(PDF).Unison. January 29, 2004.
  15. ^"Kadokawa buys ASCII(アスキー, giác xuyên が mãi thâu へ) ".IT Media, Inc.(in Japanese). January 29, 2004.Archivedfrom the original on March 27, 2009.RetrievedApril 22,2009.
  16. ^Tử hội xã の hợp tịnh に quan する kinh quá のお tri らせ(PDF)(in Japanese).Kadokawa Group Holdings.RetrievedFebruary 8,2008.
  17. ^"MediaLeaves, Inc. announcement"(in Japanese). Archived fromthe originalon October 28, 2010.
  18. ^Laing, Gordon (2004).Digital Retro: The Evolution and Design of the Personal Computer.Ilex Press.ISBN9781904705390.
  19. ^"ASCII Express: Tân しいホームパーソナルコンピュータ sĩ dạng MSX".ASCII.7(8).ASCII.1983.ISSN0287-9506.
  20. ^"MSX: The Japanese are coming! The Japanese are coming!".The Register.June 27, 2013.
  21. ^Kazuhiko Nishi - eNotes.com Reference.
  22. ^Faceoff: will MSX be a success in the United States.
  23. ^"Kojima Productions".Konami.jp.RetrievedJune 22,2011.
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