19 Facts About Taito Corporation

Taito Corporation is a Japanese company that specializes in video games, toys, arcade cabinets and game centers, based in Shinjuku, Tokyo.

Taito Corporation was founded by Michael Kogan in 1953 as the Taito Trading Company, importing vodka, vending machines and jukeboxes into Japan.

In 2005, Taito Corporation was purchased by Square Enix, becoming a wholly owned subsidiary by 2006.

Taito Corporation is recognized as an important industry influencer in the early days of video games, producing a number of hit arcade games such as Speed Race, Western Gun, Space Invaders, Bubble Bobble and Arkanoid .

The second business, a clothing distributor named Taito Corporation Yoko, struggled financially as a result of employee carelessness and constant loss of products.

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The recovering Japanese economy allowed Taito Corporation to become the official distributor of AMI jukeboxes in the country.

Taito Corporation began manufacturing electro-mechanical games in the 1960s.

Taito Corporation spent six months dissecting Atari's Pong arcade unit and learning how the game's IC chips worked, and began modifying the game.

Taito Corporation then developed several original arcade video game hits for Taito, notably the sports game TV Basketball, the racing game Speed Race, and the shooter game Western Gun ; these three titles were localized by Midway Manufacturing in North America as TV Basketball, Wheels, and Gun Fight, respectively.

In 1992, Taito Corporation announced a CD-ROM-based video game console named WOWOW, that would have allowed people to play near-exact ports of Taito Corporation's arcades, as well as download games from a satellite transmission .

Taito Corporation America ceased operations in July 1996 after more than 20 years of existence.

Taito Corporation had already sold exclusive rights for publishing its games in America to Acclaim Entertainment the previous year.

Taito Corporation Limited was created in 1988 and liquidated in February 1998.

When Taito Corporation was owned by Kyocera, its headquarters were in Hirakawacho, Chiyoda.

In October 2000, Taito merged with Kyocera Multimedia Corporation to enter the market of mobile phones for the first time.

Taito Soft Corporation was eventually merged into Square Enix in March 2010 and dissolved.

ES1 Taito Corporation was owned by the shell company SPC1, itself a wholly owned subsidiary of Square Enix Holdings.

Taito Corporation has various properties planned in its software pipeline, from re-releases to new titles for various platforms; however, Taito highlighted that the console software market is a challenging business for the company.

Taito Corporation intends to develop original games for consoles in the future.