Fujisankei Communications International
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Fujisankei Communications International, Inc. (FCI) is the American arm of the Fujisankei Communications Group (FCG), an important Japanese media conglomerate of television and radio channels, magazine, newspaper, record and video game companies. The Fujisankei Communications Group owns about 100 companies, like Fuji TV in Japan, among others. Founded in 1986 in New York City, FCI makes productions from FCG available to the United States and the rest of the western world.
FCI was well known for videogame publishing as well, being one of the early third-party developers for Nintendo's NES system. Originally, FCI merely published in North America translations of video games that were released in Japan by Pony Canyon, another company from the Fujisankei Communications Group. FCI was well-known at this time for the many RPG/Adventure games they released for the NES as conversions from PC games, e.g. the AD&D and Ultima series. Later, FCI began contracting outside development houses to create original games; examples include WCW Super Brawl Wrestling and WCW: The Main Event, both developed by Beam Software of Australia; Might & Magic III, developed by Iguana Entertainment; and Metal Morph and the Runes of Virtue Ultima titles, both developed by Origin Systems. FCI had a long partnership with Origin, starting when Pony Canyon was hired to translate the Ultima PC games for Japan, strengthening through the conversion of Ultima III-VII for NES/SNES by Pony Canyon/FCI, and continuing through the end of FCI's videogame department; a conversion of Origin's PC game Wing Commander II to SNES was in development for release by FCI when they closed their doors. In the mid-1990s, FCI abandoned video game distribution to concentrate on television operations. It has contracts with television stations in New York City, Hawaii and California to air programming segments.
Since 1999, Fuji TV, through FCI, has forbidden foreign TV stations from subtitling its dramas, a practice that is criticized and has alienated some fans of the genre.
The company continues to be based in Manhattan, but has since moved from its original offices to its current location around 1988–1989. FCI also has secondary offices in the United States, Europe and Egypt.
Published games
(released for Nintendo's NES system except where noted)
- Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: DragonStrike
- Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: Heroes of the Lance
- Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: Pool of Radiance
- Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: Hillsfar
- Bard's Tale, The
- Boxxle (Game Boy)
- Boxxle 2 (Game Boy)
- Breaktime
- Bubble Ghost (Game Boy)
- Dr. Chaos
- Eye of the Beholder (Sega CD)
- Hillsfar
- Hydlide
- Lunar Pool
- Metal Morph
- Might and Magic III: Isles of Terra (SNES)
- Magmax (port of the arcade game by Nichibutsu)
- Out of Gas
- Panel Action Bingo (Game Boy)
- Phantom Fighter
- Seicross (port of the arcade game by Nichibutsu)
- SimEarth: The Living Planet (SNES)
- Tasmania Story (Game Boy)
- Ultima: Runes of Virtue (Game Boy)
- Ultima: Runes of Virtue 2 (Game Boy, SNES)
- Ultima III: Exodus
- Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar
- Ultima V: Warriors of Destiny
- Ultima VI: The False Prophet (SNES)
- Ultima VII: The Black Gate (SNES)
- WCW Super Brawl Wrestling (SNES)
- WCW: The Main Event (Game Boy)
- WCW Wrestling
- Worlds of Ultima: The Savage Empire (SNES)
- Zanac
Unpublished games
- Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: Curse of the Azure Bonds
- WCW Super Brawl Wrestling (Sega Genesis)
- Might and Magic III: Isles of Terra (Sega Genesis)
- Wing Commander II (SNES)
Curse of the Azure Bonds was abandoned due to difficulties during development;[1] the remaining games were in development[2] when FCI closed its videogame department, and remain officially unreleased.
External links
References
- ↑ "Curse of the Azure Bonds...there were plans to remake it for the SNES".
- ↑ "Might and Magic III: Isles of Terra". Retrieved January 29, 2014.
A prototype ROM indicating prospective publishing by FCI...