A Famous Former Editor Looks Back on Famitsu
When Famicom Tsūshin Was Established
Famicom Tsūshin was spun off from a PC game magazine called LOGiN. But even though LOGiN covered PC games, it would always dedicate around two pages to titles released in the arcade, on the Famicom, Sega Mark III, and more. The name of each one of those columns was always the name of the hardware platform, with the word “Tsūshin” after it. Famicom Tsūshin was launched when one section of LOGiN was spun off into its own publication. Incidentally, the pen name Hamamura Tsūshin was the name I used in a draft of the magazine that followed that same pattern, back when I was a newbie writer. It ended up just carrying forward! When you think about it, it was very contemporary in terms of naming with things like the Famicom and Mark III.
When it came to game magazines covering the Famicom, Famimaga reigned supreme at number one. There was also a wild west of other competing publications, like Marukatsu Famicom and Famicom Hisshoubon. Famicom Tsūshin was the last one to enter the race. At the time, LOGiN was the magazine with the largest market share of PC game magazines. As an editorial department, perhaps we had gotten a little full of ourselves. With rival magazines boasting circulations approaching one million copies, I think we had this odd confidence — looking back on it now — that “we’d be fine printing a large number of copies right from the very first issue.” We even aired a TV commercial starring Beeshikkun, from the 4-panel comics in LOGiN, when the magazine launched. I believe the number of copies printed of that first issue totaled around 700,000. We sure were confident in that launch! Especially given that almost all of those 700,000 copies were returned!
At that time, it was typically for game magazines to come out bi-weekly. And Famimaga’s release was on our off week. I think the assumption was that if the two publications were published every other week, they could also alternate in publishing new game information. But the reality of the situation was completely different — The vast majority of new release information went to Famimaga first. We went to game companies so many times with hats in hand, begging for information. But we were almost always turned away with a cold response. And why wouldn’t we have been? They all wanted their games to be published in the number one best-selling game magazine! Inevitably, Famicom Tsūshin was always either imitating Famimaga or publishing the scraps that it didn’t end up covering. But even though we were imitating…even though we got stuck with the leftovers…if the editorial department thought it was interesting, we would dedicate pages to it and publish it. Some of those leftovers later became huge hits. I remember the editorial department being over the moon when Final Fantasy did so well.
What really made the magazine rise to prominence was going weekly. The number of games being released then increased dramatically — Famicom, PC, MSX, Sega platforms, PC Engine — Close to 1000 titles were coming out each year. Other magazines published separate issues for each hardware platform. However, Famicom Tsūshin went the direction of including games from all platforms in a single magazine. Hardcore fans who buy game magazines would surely be happier reading everything in one issue. I believe this was an editorial direction that had existed since the LOGiN days. And as a result, Famicom Tsūshin shortened its publication cycle and became the world’s first weekly game magazine.
We weren’t very confident that the system back then was even able to support going weekly, so we set up a trial period — We augmented staff and split the editors into two groups. Each team published Famicom Tsūshin once per month. On top of that, we decided to also publish a special issue once per month. As a result, the cycle became irregular, with one issue being published some months and two issues being published other months. Diluting the staff with new recruits and publishing two issues per month in an irregular fashion was exhausting. It was like being forced to run a marathon while skipping! This continued for six months, and then the editor-in-chief at the time gathered all the editorial staff at a pub in Shibuya and made an important announcement.
“Publishing weekly is too difficult, so we’re going to stop doing it, yon!”
The pub was instantly filled with angry shouts, and hot towels and cushions were flying everywhere. “What was the point of the past six months?!”, “What was the point of all that suffering?!”, “Why did you end your sentence in ‘yon’?!” Several executive editors, including myself, cornered the editor-in-chief, and it turned into a public shaming. In the end, he said “Okay, if you insist, then I’ll go ahead with this weekly publication, yon!” The real decision for Famicom Tsūshin to go weekly was made after the editorial staff rioted. Ultimately his words were enough to ignite a fire in the hearts of the editorial staff. With weekly publication as a catalyst, Famicom Tsūshin began gathering all the latest information, and shortly thereafter, it became the number one selling magazine. Looking back on it now, that editor-in-chief may have had some kind of deep sense of foresight.
Eventually Famicom Tsūshin changed its name to Famitsu, established a network of Famitsu partners and also spun up the Famitsu Awards. Furthermore, it moved from print, to Internet, then to video. It quickly changed its media format to suit the times. The spirit of constantly wanting to take on new challenges may have started with that one sentence that ignited something in our hearts on that night in Shibuya.