Taito Corporation
Chiyoda-ku
Tokyo,
Japan

Year Founded: 1953


The Taito Corporation is a Japanese developer of video game software and arcade hardware wholly owned by publisher Square Enix.

Taito Trading Company was established by a Russian Jewish 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 operated divisions in North America and Brazil.

The company was founded in 1953 by a Russian businessman named Michael Kogan as Taito Trading Company. 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.