( ) is a leading
Developer and
Publisher of numerous popular and strong-selling toys,
Trading Cards ,
Anime ,
Tokusatsu ,
Slot Machine s and
Video Game s. The company was founded in
1969 as a
Jukebox rental and repair business in
Osaka ,
Japan , by Kagemasa Kōzuki, the still-current
Chairman and
Chief Executive Officer . The name "Konami" is a conjunction of the names Kagemasa zuki, Yoshinobu '''Na'''kama, Hiro '''M'''atsuda, and Shokichi '''I'''shihara, who were partners acquired by Kozuki and the original founders of Konami Industry Co., Ltd in
1973 . Konami also can mean "small wave(s)" in the Japanese language.
Konami is currently headquartered in
Tokyo and additionally operates health and
Physical Fitness clubs in Japan.
On
March 19 ,
1973 , Kozuki transformed the business into Konami Industry Co., Ltd. and began work on manufacturing "amusement machines" for
Arcades . Their first actual game machine was not created until
1978 . They began to achieve success with hit arcade games such as
1981 's ''
Frogger '', ''
Scramble '', and ''
Super Cobra ''.
Between
1982 and
1985 , Konami manufactured and sold game software for home
PC s, producing games for the
MSX and
Nintendo 's
Family Computer ("Famicom")
Game Console s. This new business was in addition to, not in place of, the arcades, and many hit console games of this time period were ports of the arcade versions. Konami of America Inc. was established in
Torrance ,
California in 1982 but moved to
Wood Dale, Illinois in
1984 . Also in 1984, Konami expanded to the
United Kingdom and established Konami Limited.
, Konami adopted a new
Logo for its 30th anniversary. This was the previous logo. (1986–2003)]]
Konami began to achieve great success when the Famicom took off, being released in the United States as the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). Many of the NES/Famicom's bestselling titles were produced by Konami, including ''
Gradius '', the ''
Castlevania '' series, the ''
Contra '' series, and ''
Metal Gear ''. Konami was one of the most active and prolific third party development studios for the NES, which led to conflict with
Nintendo Of America 's licensing restrictions. During the heyday of the NES, Nintendo of America controlled the production of all licensed NES software titles, and limited third party developers to a maximum of five titles per year. Several companies found a way around this restriction by founding quasi-independent subsidiary corporations, effectively doubling the number of games that they could release during the year. In the case of Konami, this subsidiary was known as , and a large number of Konami titles were published in North America under their banner, including the original ''Metal Gear'', ''
Gyruss '', ''
Skate Or Die '', the first two ''
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles '' games and the critically savaged ''
Snake's Revenge '' (a Japanese-made ''Metal Gear'' sequel made specifically for the western market). In
Europe , faced with a similar restriction placed by Nintendo's European branch, Konami established '''
Palcom Software Ltd. ''' to the same end. By the early
1990s , Nintendo of America had relaxed many of the more draconian of its licensing restrictions, and, no longer needed, Ultra was shut down in
1992 , with the remainder of its staff being reabsorbed into Konami's official American branch.
In 1992, members of Konami left to form
Treasure Co. Ltd , which, like Konami, is also well known in the video gaming community for creating high caliber shooters and action games.
In 1999, Konami moved its U.S corporate offices from
Buffalo Grove, Illinois to its current location in
Redwood City, California . The Buffalo Grove location remained open strictly for the manufacturing of Konami's arcade video games.
In 2003, Konami of America closed down their arcade division due to heavy losses; the entire Buffalo Grove location was shut down along with it. All machine inquiries and new machines will be handled by
Betson Enterprises .
Also in 2003, Konami teamed up the Japanese film production company,
Toho Company, Ltd. to create their own
Franchise of TV series in the
Tokusatsu genre, known as the
Chōseishin Series , in order to compete with
Toei 's
Super Sentai series.
In 2005, Konami became the majority owner of
Hudson Soft . Konami has an office and gaming production facility in
Las Vegas ,
Nevada for its
Casino gaming equipment subsidiary, Konami Gaming.
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Konami is today the fourth largest game developer in Japan after (in descending order)
Nintendo Co, Ltd. ,
Sega Sammy Holdings , and
Namco Bandai Holdings .
Konami is represented by the number "573". "Five" in Japanese is "go", changed to the voiceless form "ko"; "7" in Japanese is "nana" shortened to "na"; "3" in Japanese is mittsu, shortened to "mi"; "573" = "ko-na-mi". This number appears in many Konami , the number is occasionally used as minor self-reference to the company.
See Also: List of Konami games
Konami has created some of the biggest and most memorable video games over the years. Genre-defining titles attributed to Konami include the vampire-hunting '''', ''
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles '' and ''
Tiny Toon Adventures '' series, are still remembered fondly, but other American productions like ''
The Simpsons '', ''
Bucky O Hare '', ''
G.I. Joe '' and ''
The Goonies '' all have seen release at some point in the past by Konami either on arcades and/or video game consoles . Recent cinematically styled franchises from Konami are the continuing ''
Silent Hill ''
Survival Horror Game franchise, and the ''Metal Gear'' series, which underwent a public renaissance with ''
Metal Gear Solid ''. Another successful franchise is ''
Winning Eleven '', the spiritual sequel to ''
International Superstar Soccer '', which is extremely popular in
Asia ,
Latin America ,
Egypt and
Europe , where it is sold by the name
Pro Evolution Soccer . And in Japan, it is known for the extremely popular
Jikkyou Power Pro Yakyuu (or Power Pro) baseball series.
Konami is also notorious for its famous password,
The Konami Code , which traditionally gives many
Powerup s in its games. Although variants also exist, as in the ''
Parodius '' series, and button naming can differ depending on the controller used, the classic Famicom or NES combination is: Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, Start.
In 2006, Konami started producing movies based on their popular franchises. Konami produced the recently released .
IGN
Konami produces a variety of slot machines including:
- Rocky slots (They hold the license for the slot machine rights to the movie franchise. Slots Hero
- Money in the Bank
- Solstice Gold
- African Treasure
- Atlantic Treasure
- Aloha Gold
- Cash Inferno
- Coinopolis
- Big Payoff
- Billionaires
In
2005 , Konami Corporation merged with six of its subsidiaries.
- Konami Corporation
- --- Konami Computer Entertainment Tokyo, Inc.
- --- Konami Computer Entertainment Japan, Inc.
- --- Konami Computer Entertainment Studios, Inc.
- --- Konami Online, Inc.
- --- Konami Media Entertainment, Inc.
- --- Konami Traumer, Inc
- Konami Sports Life Corporation
- Konami Sports Corporation
- Konami Corporation of America: Holding Company U.S.
- --- Konami Digital Entertainment, Inc. formerly ''Konami of America Inc.''
- Konami Corporation of Europe B.V.: Holding company Europe, formerly ''Konami Limited''
- --- Konami of Europe GmbH
- Konami Software Shanghai, Inc.
In 2006, Konami Corporation divided the Japanese video game enterprise at a new subsidiary,
Konami Digital Entertainment Co., Ltd. and Konami Corporation shifted to the holding company.
Konami Computer Entertainment Tokyo, (''aka'' KCET, KCE Tokyo, Konami TYO, and Konami Computer Entertainment Tokyo Co., Ltd.) is a former
Subsidiary of Konami Corporation. Konami absorbed KCET along with several of its other subsidiaries in 2005. KCET was a Tokyo-based game developer responsible for many of Konami's most notable franchises, including ''
Winning Eleven '', ''Castlevania'', ''
Dance Dance Revolution '', ''Gradius'', and ''
Silent Hill ''.
Konami JPN Ltd., formerly Konami Computer Entertainment Japan (KCEJ), is a
Video Game Developer and
Subsidiary of
Konami Corporation , located in
Tokyo ,
Japan .
The development house has worked on titles for a wide variety of platforms, ranging from
Game Boy to
PlayStation . KCEJ is split into two different development teams, located in two offices in Tokyo. KCEJ East has worked on the
PlayStation 2 's ''Reiselied'' and ''7 Blades'' as well as a number of dating sims for the PlayStation,
Sega Saturn , and Game Boy. KCEJ West is known for the best-selling ''Metal Gear Solid'' series, and the ''
Beatmania '' and ''
GuitarFreaks '' series.
On
April 1 ,
2005 , KCEJ (along with KCET and KCES) merged with its parent company.
Hideo Kojima (the company's former vice president) has formed his own subsidiary,
Kojima Productions .
