Taito Corporation - History

History

The company was founded in 1953 by a Russian Jewish businessman named Michael Kogan as Taito Trading Company (株式会社太東貿易, kabushikigaisha taitō bōeki?). Taito started out importing and distributing vending machines. Later, they began leasing jukeboxes and they eventually started to manufacture their own. They eventually began producing electro-mechanical arcade games in the 1960s.

Taito introduced their first video arcade game in 1973. It was also this year that they changed their name from Taito Trading Company to Taito Corporation. In 1978 Toshihiro Nishikado, a designer at Taito, created Space Invaders which became the company's most popular title ever and one of the most memorable games in arcade history, responsible for beginning the golden age of arcade video games. The game was published in the US by Midway.

Due to the huge success of Space Invaders, Taito opened in 1979 an American division called Taito America Corporation in order to release games in North America. Taito America was based in Wheeling, Illinois and was handling the arcade sector of the company in North America. While the majority of the games Taito America published were games developed by the Japanese parent company, they did also publish games that they licensed from third-party companies, as well as games that were developed in the U.S. for Taito.

Besides Taito America, Taito had another division in North America called Taito Software Inc that was in charge of the non-arcade sector of the company. Based in North Vancouver, British Columbia and established in 1988, Taito Software released Taito games exclusively for home computers and consoles. Prior to Taito Software, the consumer side was also handled by Taito America. Like Taito America, Taito Software's catalog was mainly games developed by the Japanese parent company and occasionally games licensed from other companies.

1995 marked the last year that North America saw the Taito label on new games as Taito America and Taito Software closed down their offices at the same time. Video games developed by Taito are still available in North America to this day, but they now bear the name of other publishers.

Taito has had a big influence on the course of videogame history, developing some very innovative games. Space Invaders (1978) is probably the most notable, but games such as Speed Race (1974), Gun Fight (1975), Qix (1981), Jungle Hunt (1982), Elevator Action (1983), Bubble Bobble (1986), Operation Wolf (1987), Chase H.Q. (1988), Puzznic (1989), Kick Master (1992), Gun Buster (1992) and Puzzle Bobble (1994) also introduced unique and innovative gameplay ideas. Taito also had a license from Hanna-Barbera to do games based on The Flintstones and The Jetsons.

In 1992, Taito announced a CD-ROM-based console system named WOWOW, that would have allowed people to play near-exact ports of Taito's arcades (similar to the Neo Geo), as well as download games from a satellite transmission (as the Satellaview would do later). It was named after the Japanese television station WOWOW and would have utilized its stations to download games. The WOWOW was never released.

When Taito was owned by Kyocera, their headquarters were in Hirakawachō, Chiyoda.

On August 22, 2005, it was announced that gaming giant Square Enix would purchase 247,900 Taito shares worth ¥45.16 billion (US$409.1 million), to make Taito Corporation a subsidiary of Square Enix. The purpose of the takeover by Square Enix was to both increase Taito's profit margin exponentially as well as begin their company's expansion into new forms of gaming (most notably, the arcade scene), and various other entertainment venues. The takeover bid from Square Enix was accepted by previous majority stockholder Kyocera, making Taito an official Square Enix subsidiary. On September 22, 2005, Square Enix announced successfully acquiring 93.7% of all shares of Taito, effectively owning the entire company. By September 28, 2005, Taito became a subsidiary wholly owned by Square Enix. The present Taito Corporation was formed on March 31, 2006 by merging Taito into SQEX Corporation (formerly The Game Designers Studio).

Square Enix officially announced on July 28, 2008 that they would liquidate two subsidiaries of Taito, Taito Art Corporation and Taito Tech Co., Ltd. on the grounds that both had fulfilled their business purpose. The process officially ended in October 2008.