It was not until the late 1970s that Taito America began to self-publish Taito's video games in North America. In its first years, Taito America's sole purpose was to handle the licensing of Taito's video games to American third party publishers. Taito established its American division, Taito America, in 1973. In 1978 Toshihiro Nishikado, a designer at Taito, created Space Invaders which became the company's most popular title and one of the most memorable games in arcade history, responsible for beginning the golden age of arcade video games. Several of its early arcade games saw release in North America by Midway, a Chicago area-based arcade manufacturer with strong ties to Taito. Taito changed its name from Taito Trading Company to Taito Corporation in August 1972 and introduced its first video arcade game in 1973. Taito began producing electro-mechanical arcade games in the 1960s. Later, it began leasing jukeboxes and eventually started to manufacture its own. It was the first company to distill and sell vodka in Japan. Taito started out importing and distributing vending machines. The company was founded in 1953 by a Ukrainian Jewish businessman named Michael Kogan as Taito Trading Co., Ltd.
It is currently housed in Shinjuku Bunka Quint Building in Yoyogi, Shibuya, the same building as parent company Square Enix. The company maintains a chain of arcade centers, known as "Game Taito Stations", across Japan, alongside being a manufacturer of toys, plush dolls and UFO-catcher prizes. 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 mid-1970s, and the aliens featured in the games are seen as iconic emblems within the video game industry. Alongside 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. Taito is recognized as an important player in the early days of video games, producing several hit games such as Space Invaders, Bubble Bobble, Arkanoid, and Darius.
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