PLAYISM, the label that has sent Japanese indie games abroad and brought overseas indie games to Japan, marks its 15th anniversary in 2026.

Active Gaming Media Inc. operates PLAYISM. According to the Japanese-language Wikipedia, the company was established in Tokyo in April 2008 and moved its headquarters to Osaka in August 2009. Its representative is Ibai Ameztoy, who is from Spain. PLAYISM began operating as an indie game publishing business in May 2011.

PLAYISM has distributed overseas indie games in Japanese while also localizing Japanese indie games for release abroad. Leading examples from Japan include NIGORO’s exploration-action titles La-Mulana and La-Mulana 2, as well as Downwell, which was later also released by Devolver Digital. Examples of overseas titles brought to Japanese audiences include Hyper Light Drifter and VA-11 Hall-A: Cyberpunk Bartender Action, made by Venezuela’s Sukeban Games.

According to an interview published by Game*Spark in 2013, PLAYISM reviews roughly 20 titles a month and actually releases about three of them. The most important criterion is how enjoyable a title is, and titles with adult content are excluded. At the time, the company had released a total of 95 titles in Japan and abroad, with nearly 40 more in the works.

In the same interview, Ibai Ameztoy explained why he came to Japan: “Honestly, I like manga more than games. To put it bluntly, it’s almost as if I came to Japan because I love Golgo 13” (translated from Japanese). On the goal of the business, he also said: “With works of this quality, we don’t just want to release them — we really want to make them true hits. That’s the part that has shifted from our original aim” (translated from Japanese).

According to the Japanese-language Wikipedia, Active Gaming Media began running the Japanese-language games outlet AUTOMATON in June 2014, and launched the English-language AUTOMATON WEST in August 2021.

PLAYISM’s official X account (@playismJP) posted on May 10, 2026 that it had streamed a program called “PLAYISM GAME SHOW 2026.5.10” on YouTube and Nico Nico Live “to mark 15 years since launch” (translated from Japanese). The program featured new information on 11 titles.

The show revealed new information on 11 titles, including world premieres. The stream was in Japanese, with English and Chinese subtitles.