Austrian gaming company renames itself after 28 years – Apparently fed up with the “penis” jokes
The Austrian company Koch Media has had the same name since 1994. Now there is a rebranding to a completely new name. One of the official reasons is that pronunciation around the world has been “difficult” at times. Especially in the English language there were problems, which probably got annoying at some point.
What kind of company is this? Koch Media was founded in 1994 and serves as a publisher for films and video games. Games like Dead Island, Metro, Risen 3 and Agents of Mayhem have appeared under their banner.
In addition, Koch Media is a partner of the likes of Bethesda and SEGA and handles distribution for Activision Blizzard in Europe.
This is what Koch Media is now called: After 28 years, the company now wants to give itself a new name. Since August 4, 2022, Koch Media has been called Plaion – pronounced “play on.” To make this clearer, the logo has been reworked into a stylized P in the form of a “Play” button.
Officially, it is said that the rebranding wants to make it clear that the company primarily deals with games and films (via gamesindustry.biz). However, the founder and managing director Klemens Kundratitz mentions another reason.
“Koch” made for infantile jokes
Why did the company change its name? In a short video, Kundatitz explains how people around the world pronounce “cook”. In German-speaking countries we have few problems with that, the name sounds like the profession and is also intended to be like that.
In other areas one comes to “Kotsch”, which is probably at least still acceptable. However, there have also been cases, especially in the USA, where people used “cock” – a vulgar term for the penis.
When Koch Media released Conan Exiles, which was notorious for its nudity, there was great amusement in America:
Koch Media brings Conan Exiles to stores – Americans have a great time
There may still be some misunderstandings with Plaion – the similarly pronounced “plaia” means “beach” in Portuguese – but at least the dick jokes should be a thing of the past.
Incidentally, Koch Media, or Plaion, belongs to the Swedish Embracer Group, which recently negotiated a deal with Square Enix. He’s giving hope to some fans right now:
After 6 years, Deus Ex will finally be revived – a huge sales deal makes it possible
Reference-mein-mmo.de