Taito

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, Kabushiki-gaisha Taitō Bōeki). Taito started out importing and distributing vending machines. It was also the first company to distill and sell vodka in Japan. Later, it began leasing jukeboxes and eventually started to manufacture its own. Taito began producing electro-mechanical arcade games in the 1960s.

Taito changed its name from Taito Trading Company to Taito Corporation in August 1972 and introduced its first video arcade game in 1973. Several of its early arcades games saw release in America by Midway, a Chicago area-based arcade manufacturer with strong ties to Taito. 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.

Taito opened in 1973 its Taito America division. In its first years, Taito America's sole purpose was to handle the licensing of Taito's video games to American third party publishers. It wasn't until the late 1970s that Taito America began to self-publish Taito's video games in North America. Initially based in Elk Grove Village, Illinois, Taito America relocated to nearby Wheeling in 1985. While the majority of Taito America's catalog were titles that were originally released in Japan by its parent company, it did also publish video games licensed from third-party companies, as well as games that were developed in the United States for Taito.

In April 1986 and barely a month after becoming part of the Kyocera group, Taito merged with two of its subsidiaries, Pacific Industrial Co., Ltd. and the Japan Vending Machine Co., Ltd, and absorbed them both. Japan Vending Machine was once an independent company but was purchased by Taito in July 1971 to strengthening its presence in the operation of amusement facilities. Pacific Industrial was created by Taito itself in 1963 to develop products for the company.

In May 1988, Taito Software, the division of Taito America responsible for non-arcade operations, opened its own office in North Vancouver, British Columbia. While manufacturing and distribution of Taito arcade video games in North America continued to be handled in Wheeling, the North Vancouver unit became in charge of releasing video games for Nintendo's products and the computer market. However, by early 1991, the Vancouver location had completely shut down, and publishing of home video games returned in Wheeling.

Taito America ceased operations in July 1996 after more than 20 years of existence. Taito had already sold exclusive rights for publishing its games in America to Acclaim Entertainment several months before. Similarly, a division existed in London, England in the United Kingdom to distribute Taito games in Europe. Taito (Europe) Corporation Limited was created in 1988 and liquidated in February 1998.

Taito has many well known arcade video 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), Buggy Challenge (1984), Bubble Bobble (1986), Takeshi no Chōsenjō (1986), Chase H.Q. (1988), Puzznic (1989), Kick Master (1992), Gun Buster (1992) and Puzzle Bobble (1994) are all part of Taito's library. Taito also had a license from Hanna-Barbera to produce games based on its animated series.

Several of Taito's video games that were released for the Famicom and the Super Famicom in Japan were a joint venture with Disco Corporation. Disco Corporation was established in July 1972 by Taito as a subsidiary to import and sale home electronic products. As of 2003, Disco's main activities were the development, sales and handling of licenses of computers, peripheral devices and software.

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, its headquarters were in Hirakawachō, Chiyoda.

Taito entered the Tokyo Stock Exchange in January 1993, listed in the Second Section. It transitioned to the First Section in September 2003.

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

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 its 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 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 company by September 28, 2005. By March, 2006 Taito became a subsidiary wholly owned by Square Enix and was delisted from the First Section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

Square Enix officially announced on July 28, 2008 that it would liquidate two subsidiaries of Taito, Taito Art Corporation (an insurance and travel agent subsidiary) and Taito Tech Co., Ltd. (a amusement and maintenance subsidiary) on the grounds that both had fulfilled their business purpose. The process officially ended in October 2008.

In February 2010, Taito's unit for home video games split into a separate company called Taito Soft Corporation (not to be confused with Taito Software, the North American division of the late 1980s). On March 11, 2010, Taito Soft was folded into Square Enix. All of Taito's franchises for video game consoles in Japan are now published by Square Enix though these games continue to feature the Taito logotype and copyright.

Company transformations

Taito Corporation has incarnated three different companies over the course of its existence. Two mergers (in 2006 and 2010) were achieved in order to adapt to the business requirements of its parent company, Square Enix.

First company: Taito Corporation (1953–2006)

The company was founded as "Taito Trading Company". In 1972, the name of the company was changed to "Taito Corporation" which has remained Taito's legal name ever since.

Second company: Merger of Taito and SQEX Corporation (2006–2010)

In March 2006, Square Enix, which already owned 93% of the company, wanted to make Taito a wholly owned subsidiary. To accomplish this goal, Square Enix merged Taito into SQEX Corporation. Although the combined company took on the name "Taito Corporation", it was actually Taito that was dissolved and SQEX that was the surviving entity.

SQEX was established on June 22, 1999 under the name Game Designers Studio as a shell corporation of the defunct Square Co, Ltd. It was renamed to SQEX Corporation in 2005 once Square Co, Ltd merged with Enix and purchased the company as a subsidiary. Game Designer Studios was used by Square Co, Ltd in order to evade an exclusivity deal to develop for Sony's PlayStation consoles as Sony Interactive Entertainment had an 18.6% stake in Square Co Ltd.

Third company: Taito and ES1 merging as Taito Corporation (2010–present)

Square Enix Holdings wanted all of its arcade operations to be regrouped into one subsidiary. And so, the third and present Taito Corporation came to being on February 1, 2010 by merging Taito Corporation (formerly SQEX/Game Designers Studio) with ES1 Corporation. In an "absorption-type company split" move, Taito Corporation (the second company) was split as a separate company and renamed Taito Soft Corporation, while ES1 Corporation was renamed "Taito Corporation" (the third company).

During the merger with Taito Corporation (the second company) to become itself the new Taito Corporation, ES1 inherited all of Taito's arcade and mobile businesses, and nearly the totality of its employees. On the other hand, Taito Soft Corporation (formerly SQEX) was left with 10 employees to concentrate exclusively on the development and publishing of video games for home consoles. Taito Soft Corporation was eventually merged into Square Enix in March 2010 and dissolved.

ES1 Corporation was established on June 1, 2009 as an operator of arcade facilities. ES1 Corporation was owned by SPC1, itself a wholly owned subsidiary of Square Enix Holdings. SCP1 was dissolved when ES1 Corporation re-branded as Taito Corporation in February 2010.

As such, the current Taito Corporation is technically the company formerly called ES1 Corporation.