Taito Corporation was founded by Michael Kogan on August 24, 1953 as Taito Trading Co., Ltd. (太東貿易株式会社, Taitō Bōeki Kabushiki Gaisha). The company changed its name to Taito Corporation (株式会社タイトー, Kabushiki Gaisha Taitō) in August 1972. In March 1986, Taito became part of the Kyocera group.
On June 22, 1999, Square formed The Game Designers Studio, Inc., a shell company that allowed them to get around a deal with Sony that stipulated they would create games exclusively for PlayStation video game consoles. Square owned 49% of the company and Akitoshi Kawazu, the head of Square's Product Development Division-2, owned 51%.
In 2003, Square and Enix merged to form Square Enix. In 2005, Square Enix renamed The Game Designers Studio to SQEX Corporation. On September 22, 2005, Square Enix purchased 97.3% of all stock holdings in Taito when it purchased 247,900 shares for ¥45.16 billion ($409.1 million USD). In March 2006, Taito was delisted from the Tokyo Stock Exchange when it became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Square Enix.
In March 2006, Taito Corporation was merged with SQEX Corporation. The resulting company retained the name Taito Corporation.
On June 1, 2009, Square Enix formed ES1 Corporation, a company that operated arcade facilities. On February 1, 2010, in an effort by Square Enix to consolidate its arcade divisions, Taito Corporation was renamed Taito Soft Corporation and ES1 Corporation was renamed Taito Corporation. On March 11, 2010, Taito Soft Corporation was absorbed into Square Enix. As a result, Taito Corporation was the only division of Square Enix that retained the Taito name.
Games by Taito:
1983
 | Arcade Action Game. A spy infiltrates buildings to gather secret information while avoiding enemy agents. |
1982
 | Arcade Action Rowing Game. Row a canoe down a river while avoiding obstacles and shooting when in danger. |
1980
 | Arcade Maze Game. Lupin steals money and avoids the police. |
1978
 | Arcade Fixed-Screen Shoot 'Em Up. Defend yourself against an invading alien fleet. |
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