Taito

Founded: August 24, 1953

T-series code: T-11

Merged into: Square Enix (2005)

Headquarters:

Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, Japan

Taito Corporation (タイトー) is a video game publisher and developer known for games such as Space Invaders, Arkanoid, Bubble Bobble, Bust-A-Move and Darius. It is headquartered in Taitō (or Taito City), a special ward of Tokyo, Japan, which is where the company gets its name from.

History

On August 24, 1953, Russian-Jewish entrepreneur Michael Kogan established the Taito Trading Company. The company started its life off importing and distributing vending machines, and later jukeboxes before beginning to manufacture their own. In the 1960s it moved on to producing pinball tables, and saw its first video game released in 1973 (the same year the company was renamed Taito Corporation).

Michael Kogan passed away on February 5, 1984 while on a business trip in Los Angeles. A number of arcade industry figures wrote messages dedicated to him, including Sega figures David Rosen, Raymond Lemaire, and Hayao Nakayama.^[1] Following his passing, Michael's son, Abba Kogan became chairman of Taito and Akio Nakanishi became Taito's president.

Taito distributed their own Sega NAOMI GD-ROM systems and games.

Taito was acquired by Square Enix in 2005, though the brand is still in use to this day.