Company History

Taito Corporation was founded in 1953 in Tokyo, Japan, by Michael Kogan. The company's original business had nothing to do with video games - Kogan established Taito as an importer of jukebox machines and vending machines from the United States, distributing coin-operated amusement equipment across the Japanese market.

The company name "Taito" derives from a transliteration of Kogan's native region. From humble origins supplying jukeboxes to Tokyo's post-war entertainment venues, Taito would grow into one of the most significant technology and entertainment companies in the world - though that transformation was still twenty-five years away.

Taito produced its first electronic arcade game in 1973, entering the nascent Japanese arcade market as an early pioneer. The company experimented with electro-mechanical arcade games before transitioning fully to electronic hardware.

In 1974, Taito released Speed Race - an early racing arcade title notable for featuring one of the first vertically scrolling playfields in the history of video games. The following year, 1975, Tomohiro Nishikado designed Western Gun for Taito - one of the first arcade games to feature human character sprites, a controversial decision that would inform his later, more celebrated work.

These early titles established Taito's presence in the Japanese arcade industry and gave Nishikado the platform design experience he would need for his defining project.

Space Invaders was designed by Tomohiro Nishikado and released by Taito in July 1978. It was the first fixed shooter, establishing the shoot 'em up genre that would define arcade gaming for the next decade. Nishikado spent approximately one year designing and building the game - including constructing custom hardware from scratch, because the off-the-shelf microprocessors of 1977 were not fast enough to render his vision.

Nishikado has described the alien sprite design as inspired by H.G. Wells' The War of the Worlds. He initially considered using planes, tanks, and human soldiers as targets, but chose extraterrestrial creatures - the alien insects we know today - to avoid the discomfort of depicting human figures being destroyed.

The game earned Taito approximately $500 million in its first year in Japan. It caused a temporary coin shortage across the country, prompting the Japanese government to increase coin production. Space Invaders became the benchmark against which all subsequent arcade games were measured and the catalyst for the first global video game industry.

In 1980, Atari licensed Space Invaders for the Atari 2600 home console. It became the platform's first killer app, quadrupling Atari 2600 sales and establishing the home video game market as a serious commercial proposition. By 2007, Space Invaders had generated an estimated $13 billion in revenue across all formats.

Following the extraordinary success of Space Invaders, Taito continued producing landmark arcade titles through the early 1980s. In 1981, Qix was released - a distinctive abstract arcade game developed by Randy and Sandy Pfeiffer for Taito America. Qix tasked players with claiming territory by drawing lines while avoiding a malevolent entity called the Qix, and remains one of the most conceptually inventive arcade games of the era.

1983 saw Elevator Action, a spy-themed action game in which players descended a skyscraper via elevators, collecting secret documents and dispatching enemy agents. Its vertical scrolling design and satisfying mechanics made it a favourite across multiple home platforms.

By the mid-1980s, Taito was one of the most prolific and respected names in worldwide arcade gaming, with dozens of titles spanning shooters, platformers, puzzle games, and action games.

The years 1986 to 1988 represent Taito's greatest creative concentration. In 1986 alone, the company released three landmark titles: Arkanoid, Darius, and Bubble Bobble.

Arkanoid reinvented Atari's Breakout concept with power-ups, enemy ships, and boss encounters - and was ported to virtually every home platform, becoming one of the most widely available arcade games of the decade. The Commodore 64 conversion featured a celebrated soundtrack by Martin Galway.

Darius was notable for its extraordinary triple-screen arcade cabinet - three linked monitors presenting a seamless panoramic playfield, one of the most ambitious arcade hardware configurations ever built. Its space-shooter gameplay with branching stage selection and fish-themed boss enemies made it an instant classic, backed by an evocative score from Taito's in-house sound team ZUNTATA.

Bubble Bobble, designed by Fukio Mitsuji ("MTJ"), became Taito's defining franchise title - a 100-level co-operative platformer of extraordinary depth and charm, starring Bub and Bob, two dragon brothers who trap enemies in bubbles. It was ported to every significant home computer and console platform and spawned multiple sequels.

1987 brought Rainbow Islands (MTJ's Bubble Bobble sequel, now with rainbows as platforms and weapons) and Operation Wolf (a light gun arcade shooter with a mounted gun peripheral). 1988 added The New Zealand Story, a platform adventure featuring Tiki the kiwi bird.

Throughout the late 1980s and into the 1990s, Taito's arcade back-catalogue was widely licensed to European home computer publishers for conversion. Ocean Software converted The New Zealand Story and Chase H.Q. for British home computers. Bubble Bobble, Rainbow Islands, and Arkanoid were converted to the Amiga, Atari ST, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC, and virtually every other home platform by various licensees.

Taito continued producing original titles for consoles and arcades throughout this period. In 1994, Puzzle Bobble (also known as Bust-A-Move in Western markets) was released as an arcade game. Drawing on the bubble mechanic from Bubble Bobble, Puzzle Bobble created one of the most enduring puzzle game franchises in gaming history - a simple, elegant concept of firing coloured bubbles to match and clear clusters that proved universally appealing across every platform it touched.

In 2005, Square Enix - one of Japan's largest video game publishers, itself the product of the 2003 merger between Square and Enix - acquired Taito Corporation. Taito became a wholly owned subsidiary of Square Enix, with the Taito brand preserved as an active label.

Under Square Enix ownership, Taito continued to release new Space Invaders variants and maintain its classic franchise catalogue. The acquisition ensured the survival of Taito's intellectual property and enabled continued development of its most important franchises.

Taito's legacy has been actively maintained through the modern era. Space Invaders Forever (2020) collected Space Invaders Extreme and Gigamax 4 SE for contemporary platforms. Taito Milestones (2022) brought eleven classic Taito arcade titles to Nintendo Switch, introducing the company's golden age output to new audiences.

In 2023, Puzzle Bobble Everybubble! demonstrated that Fukio Mitsuji's 1994 concept remained as compelling as ever - a new entry in one of gaming's oldest continuous franchises, developed over three decades after the original.

Space Invaders, the game that started everything, has been estimated to have generated over $13 billion in revenue across all formats by 2007 - making it one of the highest-grossing entertainment properties in history. The alien rows descending from the void remain as iconic today as they were in 1978.