MSX
family of standardized home computer architectures released between 1983 and 1990
MSX is a standardized home computer and video game system architecture, announced by ASCII Corporation on June 16, 1983. It was initially conceived by Microsoft as a product for the Japanese market, and jointly marketed by Kazuhiko Nishi, the director at ASCII Corporation. Microsoft conceived the project as an attempt to create unified standards among various home computing system manufacturers of the period, in the same fashion as the VHS standard for home video tape machines. The first MSX computer sold to the public was a Mitsubishi ML-8000, released on October 21, 1983, thus marking its official release date.
MSX systems were most popular in Japan, and were relatively popular in several other countries. The Sony MSX soon became the most popular manufacturer in Japan after its initial release. There are differing accounts of MSX sales worldwide. One source claims 9 million MSX units were sold, including 7 million in Japan alone, whereas ASCII Corporation founder Kazuhiko Nishi claims that 3 million were sold in Japan, and 1 million overseas. Despite Microsoft's involvement, few MSX-based machines were released in the United States.
The meaning of the acronym MSX remains a matter of debate.
The public source identifies “MSX” as family of standardized home computer architectures released between 1983 and 1990. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around family, standardized and home.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 29, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q853547. 1 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1983.
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This entry incorporates text from “MSX” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.