It's popular knowledge that during the NES era, Konami created the publishing company Ultra games to bypass Nintendo's rule of only allowing 5 games per year, as a way to deter companies from releasing shovelware and only focus on the best releases. This was to avoid what happened with the Atari 2600, which had so many uncontrolled releases with awful games, that crashed the U.S. video game market.
However, I have a problem with that "fact", and it's that there's no proof of that (as far as I know?). I've never seen official confirmation that Konami created Ultra (or Palcom, the European version of it) for the purpose of bypassing that rule, or even confirmation that the "5 game a year" rule was in place at all after the NES launched in the U.S.
Here's my reasoning based solely on the info I have, and hopefully someone with more resources can investigate and put this "fact" to rest:
To conclude, I think it's bollocks that Konami created Ultra to bypass that alleged 5-game limit. If there was a limit in the first place, it was probably in very early on and was quickly deprecated before companies could even make 5 games year, or before it really affected any publishing house.
Judging by how other companies released over 5 games per year without resorting to creating other publishing houses, I think this "fact" is just an urban legend and Konami just created Ultra for other reasons not related to any limit.
However, I have a problem with that "fact", and it's that there's no proof of that (as far as I know?). I've never seen official confirmation that Konami created Ultra (or Palcom, the European version of it) for the purpose of bypassing that rule, or even confirmation that the "5 game a year" rule was in place at all after the NES launched in the U.S.
Here's my reasoning based solely on the info I have, and hopefully someone with more resources can investigate and put this "fact" to rest:
- Between 1987 and 1991 Konami released between 10 and 15 NES games per year under their name. They would have not been able to release so many games per year if that rule was in place.
- Ultra didn't start releasing games until 1988, and Palcom until 1990. I really doubt Nintendo would implement that policy solely to Konami and two years after the NES was already a hit forcing Konami to create those subsidiaries.
- No other prolific company created publishing branches like Konami did. Between 1988 and 1990, Capcom released between 6 to 8 games per year. Acclaim released 7, and Gametek released 6 in 1990. Several other companies released over 5 games too. They wouldn't have been allowed to release so many games if the rule was in place.
- If Ultra games existed solely to bypass that limit, why did Konami additionally create Palcom to publish games too? Palcom was used to publish in Europe, but Konami still published games under their name in Europe too. And Palcom/Ultra published well into the SNES era too, where that alleged rule didn't exist. So what was the purpose of that branch so late in the game?
- If the rule existed, which was prompted Konami to create Ultra in the first place, then why was that rule never enforced for anyone? And if the rule never existed or was never enforced, then why did Konami create Ultra at all?
To conclude, I think it's bollocks that Konami created Ultra to bypass that alleged 5-game limit. If there was a limit in the first place, it was probably in very early on and was quickly deprecated before companies could even make 5 games year, or before it really affected any publishing house.
Judging by how other companies released over 5 games per year without resorting to creating other publishing houses, I think this "fact" is just an urban legend and Konami just created Ultra for other reasons not related to any limit.
