Playism

Playism was launched by Active Gaming Media in May 2011 as a digital distribution platform for PC games. It was founded by Shunji Mizutani, who has run it as executive producer since. Its launch titles included Machinarium and SpaceChem. Its goal was to introduce western-developed indie titles to the Japanese market, and to localize Japanese doujin games for overseas audience. In April 2013, Playism began a project with HAL College of Technology & Design in both Osaka and Nagoya. The project involves students creating games in four-person teams over a period of several months. The games would then be judged by Playism staff, Daisuke "Pixel" Amaya (Cave Story), Smoking Wolf (One Way Heroics), and members of Nigoro (La-Mulana). The highest-rated games were then localized by Playism, and released on the PLAYISM store page for purchase. Playism was closely involved in the administration of the indie-based game event BitSummit in March 2013, helping both with translation and interpretation as well as with logistics. In September 2013, Playism collaborated with Sony Computer Entertainment Japan Asia on an event called Indie Stream. Originally planned by indie developers Nigoro and Nyamyam, Indie Stream was designed to bring indie developers from both Japan and abroad together to meet and share information. It was announced at Indie Stream that PLAYISM would be assisting indie developers in publishing their games on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita in Japan. Playism closed its digital storefront on March 24, 2021, ceasing download service and sales of Steam keys on the website. The company announced that this would not affect its other businesses, and would continue publishing video games for Steam, GOG.com, and other home game consoles.