The is a Japanese developer of video game software and arcade hardware wholly-owned by RPG publisher Square Enix.
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The is a Japanese developer of video game software and arcade hardware wholly-owned by RPG publisher Square Enix.
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.
Taito Corporation currently has divisions in Seoul, South Korea and Milan, Italy, and a subsidiary in Beijing, China. In the past, the company had also operated divisions in North America and Brazil.
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.
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.
