Me and my friend were talking about what we would like to call our own companies in the future and we were looking at current game and movie company names. A name in itself is super important and really is the thing that gives a possible developer or client it's first impression. Here was a couple of companies and what we thought about the names:
ILM (Industrial Light and Magic):Awesome. Seriously, the name it self is like a masterpiece, and now that they are popular their names is everywhere in the business.
Crystal Dynamics: Also cool. It just sounds awesome doesn't it?
Ubisoft:Again, it has an alluring quality.
Insomniac:Crazy for games?
Naughty Dog:Another name that just sounds cool.
Rockstar: Need I say more?
Ninja Theory:Those crafty ninja's appear again!
Infinity Ward:Reach for the sky? Infinite possibilities!
SoftimageX:Nothing cooler then an X right?
Which brings me to my main point... What the fuck kind of name is Midway? What's that make you think of? "Hi, come and ask us to develop you new IP, we'll go Midway with it and then rush that shit out that door... Don't go to that Maxway there..." Seriously? Midway? What kind of name is that...?
What the fuck is Midway? (Importance of Names)
What would I name a game company? Hm. Don't really know. Never thought about it before. If I were ever going to start my own game company, I'd take at least a few days to think it over (probably longer), plus I'd surely have a business plan in mind about where it would be located, what kind of games we'd make, etc., which might help influence my decision. My main goal would to be to name the company in a manner that actually implies what the company does without directly saying so.
But without any knowledge of such things, I guess I'd just have to go with what sounds cool after a brief brainstorming session. So here's a few I thought of just now. Whether or not I'd settle for any of them would depend on whether I still liked them a few days later.
Idea #1. Jamtronics
Okay, this one's not a great start but it's the first thing I thought of. Being as critical of myself as I was of Rockstar before, jam doesn't really have anything to with gaming, in fact, it sounds like a musical term (or worse, a fruit spread). The tronics part of the name helps a teensy little bit, but ultimately the two terms combined make it sound like a company that produces or sells electronic musical equipment; keyboards, guitars, keytars and the like. So it's definitely out. Also, someone else already has a company named Jamtronics that sells gaming products, so it's doubly out.
Idea #2. ion quest ENTERTAINMENT
I started thinking about what kinds of games I like the most, and would thusly be likely to make. One answer that came back at me was games with a defined plot, where there's a significant story and a goal. Thinking about a way to sum that up in a word or two, I arrived at quest. I decided that Quest Games would simply be too generic, so I began to think about words I could add to quest or build from quest. Question came to mind, but Question Games just seems like an easily misinterpreted name for a company that wants to sell them. So then I thought about capitalizing the I and making it QuestIon Games, but besides not making any sense, as I just demonstrated it is indistinguishable from Questlon Games (with a lowercase "L"), which is simply bad branding. So then I thought about switching the order and making it Ion QuestGames. What the hell is an Ion Quest? I don't know. I do know that ions are electrically charged atoms, so it's a good word to use in the name of a company that makes electronic products. And the logo could somehow incorporate a question mark, and the marketing could be something along the lines of "challenge your way of thinking", but hopefully catchier; I don't know, I really haven't thought about it in detail, I'm just kind of typing and rambling. Every company needs an animated logo intro that pops up at the beginning of their games, and Ion Quest Games would probably feature an artist's rendition of an ion, I don't know, doing something like acting as a pinball or other bouncing ball of some type, maybe eventually settling on the I in Ion, although then the company name would be written lowercase: ion quest games. Maybe the logo would start out as question and the ion would come along and somehow knock ion to the front of the word, as games fades in. In fact it probably wouldn't be games, it would probably be entertainment because it sounds more sophisticated. Anyways, it's all a moot point because there is both a band named Ion Quest as well as some crappy cell phone game named Ion's Quest, and even if I could someone score the trademark, I would probably be too proud to do so.
Idea #3. Hop2It Games
So I started thinking about platformers—hop 'n' bop gameplay, we sometimes called it. I love those kinds of games, but there is a much smaller market for them than ever before, and since I wouldn't have any established characters to work with, my games would need a lot of luck to get off the ground. Nevertheless, the phrase "hop to it" came to mind, and I spelled it with a "2" like a txtng nrd wud, because I guess that's cool. But it has the same problem as QuestIon did, with the easily mistaken for an "L" capital letter i, and worse, I intentionally deviated from normal linguistics right before it. Ugh. Plus I'm not really sold on the name or the company's mission, so I'll pass on this one. In addition there seems to be an Australian company with that name, although it probably wouldn't be an impediment to my naming my company that.
Idea #4. DynAmmo Entertainment
I thought of the word "dynamo", which suggests either an electric generator or a hard-working person; a go-getter. Or, used informally, a great idea. It's a little generic, though, and there's already a "Dynamo Entertainment", a DJ in DC, so I thought about a little longer and realized that by mispronouncing the word, you get DynAmmo, which I think still gets the point across but is actually available. However, it does seem like the name of a company geared towards making FPS games and such, and that's probably the last kind of game I'd want to work on. So I guess it's a candidate, but not one I'd place very high on the list, if I had anything else on the list at this point.
Idea #5. Techno Logic
Funny, I was going to stop after #5 anyways because I'm only doing this for fun, but by jove, I think I've got it! (Do the kids these days still say "by jove?" No? That's a shame.) Anyways, I thought of technology, then technological, and finally techno logical, before deciding to shorten it just to Techno Logic. Techno, of course, evokes thoughts of technology (or repetitive dance music) and Logic is deductive reasoning. Now, while I wouldn't go and make crummy Brain Age clones, my games would definitely have logical elements to them. Plus, it's not even trademarked by anyone, and there's only some goofy CD on Amazon.com with the same name, so I'd probably have no problem securing the trademark. I'd probably also trademark it with an Inc. on the end, as well as Games and Entertainment, just so I could use it any way I wanted. Of course I could completely change my mind in a few days, or find evidence of some reason not to go with it, but for the moment I'm pretty happy with it. Now all I have to do is scrape together hundreds of millions of dollars in capital and learn how to program a video game. Target launch date for the first game is August '09 so I guess I'd better get started. 
"Surprised THQ (Toy Headquarters) wasn't mentioned. By far the worst company name I've ever seen/heard."
Is that really their name?! Because their acronym sounds too cool to mean something that stupid. lolDXSSI said:
"What would I name a game company? Hm. Don't really know. Never thought about it before. If I were ever going to start my own game company, I'd take at least a few days to think it over (probably longer), plus I'd surely have a business plan in mind about where it would be located, what kind of games we'd make, etc., which might help influence my decision. My main goal would to be to name the company in a manner that actually implies what the company does without directly saying so.
But without any knowledge of such things, I guess I'd just have to go with what sounds cool after a brief brainstorming session. So here's a few I thought of just now. Whether or not I'd settle for any of them would depend on whether I still liked them a few days later.
Idea #1. Jamtronics
Okay, this one's not a great start but it's the first thing I thought of. Being as critical of myself as I was of Rockstar before, jam doesn't really have anything to with gaming, in fact, it sounds like a musical term (or worse, a fruit spread). The tronics part of the name helps a teensy little bit, but ultimately the two terms combined make it sound like a company that produces or sells electronic musical equipment; keyboards, guitars, keytars and the like. So it's definitely out. Also, someone else already has a company named Jamtronics that sells gaming products, so it's doubly out.
Idea #2. ion quest ENTERTAINMENT
I started thinking about what kinds of games I like the most, and would thusly be likely to make. One answer that came back at me was games with a defined plot, where there's a significant story and a goal. Thinking about a way to sum that up in a word or two, I arrived at quest. I decided that Quest Games would simply be too generic, so I began to think about words I could add to quest or build from quest. Question came to mind, but Question Games just seems like an easily misinterpreted name for a company that wants to sell them. So then I thought about capitalizing the I and making it QuestIon Games, but besides not making any sense, as I just demonstrated it is indistinguishable from Questlon Games (with a lowercase "L"), which is simply bad branding. So then I thought about switching the order and making it Ion QuestGames. What the hell is an Ion Quest? I don't know. I do know that ions are electrically charged atoms, so it's a good word to use in the name of a company that makes electronic products. And the logo could somehow incorporate a question mark, and the marketing could be something along the lines of "challenge your way of thinking", but hopefully catchier; I don't know, I really haven't thought about it in detail, I'm just kind of typing and rambling. Every company needs an animated logo intro that pops up at the beginning of their games, and Ion Quest Games would probably feature an artist's rendition of an ion, I don't know, doing something like acting as a pinball or other bouncing ball of some type, maybe eventually settling on the I in Ion, although then the company name would be written lowercase: ion quest games. Maybe the logo would start out as question and the ion would come along and somehow knock ion to the front of the word, as games fades in. In fact it probably wouldn't be games, it would probably be entertainment because it sounds more sophisticated. Anyways, it's all a moot point because there is both a band named Ion Quest as well as some crappy cell phone game named Ion's Quest, and even if I could someone score the trademark, I would probably be too proud to do so.
Idea #3. Hop2It Games
So I started thinking about platformers—hop 'n' bop gameplay, we sometimes called it. I love those kinds of games, but there is a much smaller market for them than ever before, and since I wouldn't have any established characters to work with, my games would need a lot of luck to get off the ground. Nevertheless, the phrase "hop to it" came to mind, and I spelled it with a "2" like a txtng nrd wud, because I guess that's cool. But it has the same problem as QuestIon did, with the easily mistaken for an "L" capital letter i, and worse, I intentionally deviated from normal linguistics right before it. Ugh. Plus I'm not really sold on the name or the company's mission, so I'll pass on this one. In addition there seems to be an Australian company with that name, although it probably wouldn't be an impediment to my naming my company that.
Idea #4. DynAmmo Entertainment
I thought of the word "dynamo", which suggests either an electric generator or a hard-working person; a go-getter. Or, used informally, a great idea. It's a little generic, though, and there's already a "Dynamo Entertainment", a DJ in DC, so I thought about a little longer and realized that by mispronouncing the word, you get DynAmmo, which I think still gets the point across but is actually available. However, it does seem like the name of a company geared towards making FPS games and such, and that's probably the last kind of game I'd want to work on. So I guess it's a candidate, but not one I'd place very high on the list, if I had anything else on the list at this point.
Idea #5. Techno Logic
Funny, I was going to stop after #5 anyways because I'm only doing this for fun, but by jove, I think I've got it! (Do the kids these days still say "by jove?" No? That's a shame.) Anyways, I thought of technology, then technological, and finally techno logical, before deciding to shorten it just to Techno Logic. Techno, of course, evokes thoughts of technology (or repetitive dance music) and Logic is deductive reasoning. Now, while I wouldn't go and make crummy Brain Age clones, my games would definitely have logical elements to them. Plus, it's not even trademarked by anyone, and there's only some goofy CD on Amazon.com with the same name, so I'd probably have no problem securing the trademark. I'd probably also trademark it with an Inc. on the end, as well as Games and Entertainment, just so I could use it any way I wanted. Of course I could completely change my mind in a few days, or find evidence of some reason not to go with it, but for the moment I'm pretty happy with it. Now all I have to do is scrape together hundreds of millions of dollars in capital and learn how to program a video game. Target launch date for the first game is August '09 so I guess I'd better get started.
I'm always glad to make someone do some heavy thinking with my posts. You brought up a lot of good points. It took my a few years for me to come up with a name for my game company (by game company, I mean game company I wish I could make. lol) It is important to have a name that tries to tell whoever sees it what your company is about within a few words (which is near-impossible lol But its good to try anyway) I tried to do that with a name but put 'Games' at the end to help show that it stands for a game company name and to try to avoid confusion. But I guess the name is really just a reminder about what I would want any games I would create to be about and that would be motivation. Also, the name sounds cool. hehe
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