Everything about Taito Corporation totally explained
The is a
Japanese developer of
video game software and arcade hardware. Taito Trading Company was established by a
Russian businessman named
Michael Kogan. Taito also imports and distributes
American coin-op video games in
Japan, as well as their own games all around the world. Taito Corporation was acquired by
Square Enix in 2005.
History
The company was founded in 1953 by a Russian businessman named
Michael Kogan as . Taito started out importing and distributing
vending machines. Later, they began
leasing jukeboxes and they eventually started to
manufacture their own.
Although Taito was already making coin-op mechanical and
pinball games during the 1960s, it wasn't until 1973 that Taito introduced their first video arcade game. It was also in 1973 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. This game was published in the US by
Midway. Space Invaders was inspired by an earlier 1972 electro-mechanical game by Taito called
Space Monsters.
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 its 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 is probably the most notable, but games such as
Qix,
Bubble Bobble,
Jungle Hunt,
Elevator Action, and
Puzzle Bobble also introduced unique and innovative gameplay ideas.
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.
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 is 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.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Taito Corporation'.
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