Taito

Taito Corporation

Taito shares its headquarters building (in Shinjuku) with its parent company, Square Enix.
Native name	株式会社タイトー
Romanized name	Kabushikigaisha Taitō
Formerly	Taito Trading Company
Company type	Subsidiary
Industry	Video games Arcades Toys
Founded	August 24, 1953; 70 years ago (August 24, 1953)[a]
Founder	Michael Kogan
Headquarters	Shinjuku, Tokyo , Japan
Key people	Katsuhiko Iwaki (President) Tetsu Yamada (Chairman) Yukio Lizawa (Honorary chairman)
Products	Video games Arcade systems Mobile games Toys
Total equity	¥45.70 billion
Number of employees	752 (March 2020)
Parent	Square Enix (2005–present)
Subsidiaries	Taito Game Rental Taitotech
Website	www.taito.com
Footnotes / references "Taito Corporation Company Profile 2019" (PDF) (in Japanese). Taito. 2019. Archived from the original (PDF) on May 15, 2020. Retrieved May 27, 2020.

Taito Corporation^[b] is a Japanese company that specializes in video games, toys, arcade cabinets, and game centers, based in Shinjuku, Tokyo. The company was founded by Michael Kogan in 1953 as the Taito Trading Company,^[c] importing vodka, vending machines, and jukeboxes into Japan. It began production of video games in 1973. In 2005, Taito was purchased by Square Enix, becoming a wholly owned subsidiary by 2006.^[1]

Taito 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 (1974), Western Gun (1975), Space Invaders (1978), Bubble Bobble (1986), and Arkanoid (1986). Alongside Capcom, Konami, Namco, and Sega, it is one of the most prominent video game companies from Japan and the first that exported its games into other countries.^[2] Several of its games have since been recognized as important and revolutionary for the industry – Space Invaders in particular was a major contributor to the growth of video games in the late 1970s, and the aliens featured in the games are seen as iconic emblems within the video game industry.

The company maintains a chain of arcade centers, known as "Taito Game Stations", across Japan, alongside being a manufacturer of toys, plush dolls and UFO-catcher prizes.

Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).