Taito Corporation

History

Michael Kogan was born in Odesa, Ukraine in 1920. His family fled the Russian Revolution to Harbin, Manchuria, and he later moved to Japan in 1939, studying at Waseda School of Economics through the war years. In 1950 he returned to Japan permanently, settling in Setagaya, Tokyo. On August 24, 1953, he established the Taito Trading Company. The name Taito was derived from 'Taito-ku,' the district where the company's first office was located, combined with the first kanji of his name. The company began by importing vodka, vending machines, and jukeboxes — the machinery of entertainment, not yet entertainment itself.

Through the 1960s, Taito expanded into manufacturing its own amusement machines, including electro-mechanical arcade games. In 1972, the company changed its name from Taito Trading Company to Taito Corporation. The following year, 1973, Taito introduced its first video arcade game, marking the company's entry into the medium that would define its legacy. The shift from importing machines to creating interactive electronic experiences was complete.

In 1977, a Taito designer named Tomohiro Nishikado began developing a shooting game. He drew inspiration from Gun Fight, Breakout, the novel The War of the Worlds, the anime Space Battleship Yamato, and the film Star Wars. Development took nearly a year — not only designing the game but building the necessary arcade hardware to run it. The game was completed by January 1978 and made its first appearance at an arcade industry event. Taito published Space Invaders on April 1, 1978, with mass production beginning in July.

Space Invaders was initially met with skepticism. Nishikado's colleagues queued up to play it and praised the game; his bosses predicted low sales. Amusement arcade owners were hesitant, but pachinko parlors and bowling alleys took the risk. Within months, the game became a phenomenon. Specialty arcades opened with nothing but Space Invaders cabinets. By the end of 1978, Taito had installed over 100,000 machines in Japan and grossed $670 million. The game triggered a shortage of 100-yen coins in the country. Space Invaders is credited with beginning the golden age of arcade video games — the moment the medium moved from novelty to global industry.

Taito reached its peak in the 1980s, producing classic after classic. Bubble Bobble (1986), a platform game featuring two bubble-blowing dragons, became one of Taito's biggest arcade successes and inspired an entire subgenre of screen-clearing platform games. Arkanoid (1986), a brick-breaking game with power-ups and level variety, refined the Breakout formula into an enduring arcade staple. Operation Wolf (1987), a light gun shooter, became one of the highest-grossing arcade games of 1988. The Darius series, beginning in 1987, introduced horizontal scrolling shooters with branching paths and massive multi-monitor cabinets.

Michael Kogan died on February 5, 1984, in Los Angeles at the age of 64. His son Abraham 'Abba' Kogan became Taito's chairman, and Akio Nakanishi became its president. Taito continued to produce successful arcade and home console titles through the 1990s and early 2000s, but the arcade market that Space Invaders had ignited was in decline worldwide.

On August 22, 2005, Square Enix announced it would acquire Taito Corporation for ¥45.16 billion (approximately US$409 million). By September 28, 2005, Taito became a wholly owned subsidiary of Square Enix. On March 31, 2006, Taito was merged with SQEX Corporation (formerly The Game Designers Studio) to consolidate Square Enix's arcade operations. The company underwent further reorganization in 2010, emerging as the third iteration of Taito Corporation, which remains active as of 2026.

Space Invaders grossed $13.93 billion as of 2016, making it one of the highest-grossing games in history. The game that a Ukrainian immigrant's company released in 1978 — rows of descending aliens, a player with a single cannon, and the rising tempo of four repeating notes — became the template for an industry. Taito's bet on a designer's vision changed entertainment forever.