Nihon Bussan Co., Ltd.

Nihon Bussan Co., Ltd. (日本物産株式会社), better known under the brand name Nichibutsu (ニチブツ), was a game developer and publisher based in Osaka City, Japan. The company was established in October 1970 by Sueharu Torii, initially renting jukeboxes; in 1975, Nichibutsu started renting and manufacturing electro-mechanical arcade games, and produced their first video game Table-Attacker in 1978. Moon Cresta and Crazy Climber, both released in 1980, were early hits for the company.

Nichibutsu entered the home games market in 1983 with the release of the My Vision game console, a market flop which saw only six games released, all of them digital conversions of physical games such as Mahjong and Hanafuda. Nichibutsu would go on to support the Nintendo Famicom, signing on as a licensee in 1986, and subsequently release a wide range of game titles for many different consoles. The F1 Circus series was another hit for the company, and Nichibutsu was even an official F1 sponsor of Team Lotus in 1992 and 1993. The company released its final console game, the boat racing game Virtual Kyōtei 21, in 2001.

Nichibutsu is perhaps best known for their prolific library of Mahjong games; between 1981 and 2005, the company produced over 200 mahjong games across the home and arcade markets, many of them including explicit adult content. Many later titles were released under the Sphinx brand.

The company exited the games market entirely in 2007, and suspended business in 2009. Hamster acquired the rights to Nichibutsu's full catalog in 2014, and the company was officially dissolved on December 15, 2015. Numerous other companies were started by former Nichibutsu staff throughout its existence, including Graphic Research, Make Software, Wood Place, T-System, and Monolith.