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I've come across プレイガイド and I thought it meant "playguide" (which can be found is some dictionaries), but it didn't make sense in its context. I looked it up and found it meant "ticket agency".

How did it come to this? I can't find a link. Phonetically it obviously comes from "playguide", but I can't find a way for it to slide that much to mean what it means.

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That's a product name. Basically a ticket vending machine placed at some convenience stores in Japan.

Edit: It's actually a 和製英語 (Japanese-made English word), which probably intended to refer "a place where you can buy ticket for you to 'play'". It generally refers to a ticket store (vending machine, now) that sells tickets for concerts, amusement parks, etc.

Another example of wasei-eigo: Salaryman, Skinship..

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wasei-eigo https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%97%E3%83%AC%E3%82%A4%E3%82%AC%E3%82%A4%E3%83%89

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    So it's a genericized trademark? I feel like there are a lot of those in Japanese.
    – ConMan
    Commented May 22, 2017 at 2:34
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    Sorry, I got it wrong actually. The wikipedia entry actually says it's 和製英語, wacky Japanese-made English word. So it doesn't actually refer to a specific trademark.
    – meriororen
    Commented May 22, 2017 at 2:40
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    It is NOT a product name. Why so many upvotes here?
    – user4032
    Commented May 22, 2017 at 10:16
  • サラリーマン does not appear to be true 和製英語: instead, this derived from English "salaried man", a phrase appearing in print since at least 1828.
    – Eiríkr Útlendi
    Commented Jun 30, 2017 at 17:27

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