Japan · 1986–present
Japan's most influential games publication and the world's longest-running dedicated gaming magazine, whose four-reviewer scoring system and rare perfect 40/40 scores carry enormous weight in the Japanese industry.
Famitsu launched in June 1986 as Famicom Tsushin, a bi-weekly magazine dedicated to the Nintendo Famicom and published by ASCII (later Enterbrain, now Kadokawa). Its name — a portmanteau of Famicom and Tsushin (communication) — reflected its original platform focus, though the publication quickly expanded to cover all major platforms as the market grew beyond Nintendo. The magazine's Cross Review format, in which four editors each award a game a score out of 10 to produce a combined total of 40, is the world's most recognised games scoring system outside Western markets. A perfect 40/40 score is considered exceptional: as of 2024 fewer than thirty games have received it since the system was introduced, including The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (1998), Vagrant Story (2000), and The Last of Us (2013). Famitsu's sales charts, published weekly, are the definitive measure of Japanese game performance and are quoted by developers and publishers worldwide as a primary indicator of domestic commercial success.