Konami is currently headquartered in Tokyo and additionally operates health and physical fitness clubs in Japan. Konami also operates United States activities in El Segundo, California for video games, and Paradise, Nevada for the gambling industry. The location in Paradise, Nevada is located across the street from one of the runways at McCarran International Airport. Its Australian gambling operations are located in Sydney, Australia, and distribution of Konami's games in Australia is handled by Atari Australia, which is usually subject to controversy as Konami of Europe's games distributed by Atari Australia are much more expensive than other games distributed by them. Distribution of KOE's games in Australia was to be taken over by Red Ant Enterprises in February 2009, but Jason Hill from The Age and ASIC, a government body, announced that the company went into External Receivership and Administration, which then led KOE to re-sign with Atari Australia.

History

Prose: date=March 2009 In March 21, 1969, Kagemasa Kozuki (current chairman of the board and Chief Executive Officer) founded a jukebox rental/repair business in Osaka.

In March 19, 1973, Kozuki transformed the business into Konami Industry Co., Ltd. and began work on manufacturing "amusement machines" for arcades. Their first actual game machine was not created until 1978. They began to achieve success with hit arcade games such as 1981's Frogger, Scramble, and Super Cobra.

In January 1979, Konami began exporting products to the United States.

In May 1980, the headquarters was moved to Toyonaka, Osaka.

In March 1981, the Konami logo was established.

In October 1982, Konami began manufacturing and selling PC games.

In November 1982, Konami of America, Inc. (currently Konami Digital Entertainment, Inc.) was established in Torrance, California.

In November 1983, Konami began manufacturing and selling MSX games.

In May 1984, Konami Ltd. (currently Konami Digital Entertainment B.V.) was established in the U.K.

In October 1984, Konami was listed on the Second Section of the Osaka Securities Exchange (specially designated stocks in the second section).

In December 1984, Konami GmbH (currently Konami Digital Entertainment GmbH) was established in Germany.

In 1984, Konami of America Inc. was moved to Wood Dale, Illinois .

In April 1985, Konami began manufacturing and selling Family Computer ("Famicom") video games. This new business was, in addition to their arcade market, from which many games were later ported.

In December 1987, Konami Kosan Co., Ltd. (currently Konami Real Estate, Inc.) was established.

In February 1988, Konami was listed on the Second Section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

Konami began to achieve great success when the Famicom took off, being released in the United States as the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). Many of the NES/Famicom's bestselling titles were produced by Konami, including Gradius, the Castlevania series, the Contra series, and Metal Gear. Konami was one of the most active and prolific third party development studios for the NES, which led to conflict with Nintendo of America's licensing restrictions. During the heyday of the NES, Nintendo of America controlled the production of all licensed NES software titles, and limited third party developers to a maximum of five titles per year. Several companies found a way around this restriction by founding quasi-independent subsidiary corporations, effectively doubling the number of games that they could release during the year. In the case of Konami, this subsidiary was known as Ultra Games, and a large number of Konami titles were published in North America under their banner, including the original Metal Gear, Gyruss, Skate or Die!, the first two Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles games and Snake's Revenge (an American-made Metal Gear sequel made specifically for the western market). In Europe, faced with a similar restriction placed by Nintendo's European branch, Konami established Palcom Software Ltd. to the same end. By the early 1990s, Nintendo of America had relaxed many of its licensing restrictions, and, no longer needed, Ultra was shut down in 1992, with the remainder of its staff being reabsorbed into Konami's official American branch.