Taito

File:TAITO logo.png

Taito's current logo

The Taito Corporation (タイトー株式会社, taitō kabushikigaisha) TYO: 9646 is a Japanese developer of video game software and arcade hardware. The word Taito (pronounced "TIE-toe") translates to "far east". The company was founded in 1953 by Russian Michael Kogan as Taito Trading Company (株式会社大東貿易, kabushikigaisha taitō bōeki).

Taito started out importing and distributing vending machines. Later, they began leasing jukeboxes but they eventually started to manufacture their own. Taito also imports and distributes American coin-op video games in Japan, as well as their own games all around the world.

Although Taito was already making coin-op electro-mechanical and pinball games during the 1960's, it wasn't until 1973 that Taito introduced its first video game. It was also in 1973 that they changed their corporate 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 biggest and most memorable game in arcade history. That 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 subsidiary called Taito America Corporation in order to release themselves their games in North America. Taito America was based in Elk Grove Village, 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. Besides Taito America, Taito had another subsdiairy in North America called Taito Software Inc that was in charge of the non-arcade sector of the company . Based in Vancouver, British Columbia and founded in 1988, Taito Software released Taito games exclusively for home computers and consoles. Prior to the creation of Taito Software, the consumer side was handled by Taito America. Like Taito America, Taito Software's catalog was mainly games developed by the 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. Taito games are still available in North America to this day but they now bear the name of other publishers.

In 1992, Taito designed a CD-ROM-based console system that allowed people to download and play arcade-quality CD-ROM games, but the system was never released.

On 22 August 2005, it was announced that gaming giant Square Enix would purchase 247,900 Taito shares worth 45.16 billion yen (409.10 million USD), to make Taito Corporation a subsidary of Square Enix. [1] 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 offical Square Enix subsidiary.

On 22 September 2005, Square Enix announced successfully acquiring 93.7% of all shares of Taito, effectively owning the entire company. [2] By 28 September 2005, Taito became a subsidiary wholly owned by Square Enix. [3]

Titles

• Gun Fight (1975) - Taito's first game
• Space Invaders (1978) - Taito's first big hit and their biggest-selling game ever
• Lunar Rescue (1979) - Space Invaders spin-off
• Space Invaders Part II (1979)
• Phoenix (1980) - created by Amstar as a prototype
• Qix (1981)
• Qix II (1981)
• Jungle Hunt (1982)
• Chack'n Pop (1983)
• Elevator Action (1983)
• Return of the Invaders (1985)
• Darius (1986)
• KiKi KaiKai (1986)
• Bubble Bobble (1986)
• Arkanoid (1986)
• Super Qix (1987)
• Dr Toppel's Adventure (1987)
• Rainbow Islands (1987) - sequel to Bubble Bobble
• Operation Wolf (1987)
• Arkanoid - Revenge of DOH (1987)
• Plump Pop (1987)
• The NewZealand Story (1988)
• The NewZealand Story 2 (1988)
• Kageki (1988)
• Chuka Taisen (1988)
• Bonze Adventure (1988)

External links

• http://www.taito.co.jp/ - Company homepage (in Japanese)
• The Taito Project from Emulation Status
• Taito Corporation at MobyGames