Since 1994, the Austrian company Koch Media has been known by that name. Now there is a rebranding to a completely new name. One of the official reasons is that the pronunciation around the world has been partly “difficult”. Especially in the English-speaking world, problems arose that eventually became annoying.
What kind of company is this? Koch Media was founded in 1994 and acts as a publisher for movies and video games. Under its banner, games like Dead Island, Metro, Risen 3, and Agents of Mayhem have been released.
In addition, Koch Media is a partner of giants like Bethesda and SEGA, and is responsible for the distribution of Activision Blizzard in Europe.
This is what Koch Media is now called: After 28 years, the company wants to give itself a new name. Since August 4, 2022, Koch Media is now called Plaion – pronounced “play on.” To clarify this, the logo has been redesigned to a stylized P in the shape of a “Play” button.
Officially, it is said that the rebranding is meant to clarify that the company primarily deals with games and movies (via gamesindustry.biz). However, the founder and managing director Klemens Kundratitz mentions another reason.
“Koch” caused childish jokes
Why did the company change its name? In a short video, Kundratitz explains how people worldwide pronounce “Koch”. In the German-speaking world, we have little problem with it, the name sounds like the profession and is also intended that way.
In other areas, it sounds like “Kotsch”, which is still somewhat acceptable. However, there have also been cases, especially in the USA, where people resorted to “cock” – a vulgar term for the penis.
When the nudity-infamous Conan Exiles was distributed by Koch Media in the USA, it caused great amusement in America:
With Plaion, there may still be some communication problems – the similarly pronounced “plaia” means “beach” in Portuguese – but at least the penis jokes should be a thing of the past.
Koch Media, or Plaion, belongs to the Swedish Embracer Group, which recently negotiated a deal with Square Enix. This is giving some fans hope:
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