( ) is a leading
Developer and
Publisher of numerous popular and strong-selling
Computer And Video Games . The company was founded in
1969 as a
Jukebox rental and repair business in
Osaka ,
Japan by Kagemasa Kozuki, the still-current
Chairman and
CEO . 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 means "Small waves."
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 wasn't created until
1978 . They began to achieve success with hit arcade games such as
1981 's ''
Scramble '' and ''
Super Cobra ''.
Between
1982 and
1985 , Konami manufactured and sold game software for home
PC s, producing games for the
MSX ,
Atari 2600 , 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 the
United States in
1982 , and 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.]]
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 three ''
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles '' games and the critically savaged ''
Snake's Revenge '' (a
Japan ese-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 community for creating high caliber shooters and action games.
In 2003, Konami of America closed down their arcade division due to heavy losses. All machine inquiries and new machines will be handled by
Betson Enterprises .
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 subsidary, Konami Gaming.
{Link without Title}
Konami is today the 4th largest game developer in
Japan after "Nintendo Co Ltd" (1st), "Sega Sammy Holdings" (2nd) and "Namco Bandai Holdings" (3rd).
Konami is represented by the number "573". "5" in Japanese is "go", changed to unvoiced form "ko"; "7" in Japanese is "nana" shortened to "na"; "3" in Japanese is mittsu, shortened to "mi". "573" = "ko-na-mi"
See Also: List of Konami games
Over the years, some of the biggest and most memorable video games have been created by Konami. Genre-defining titles attributed to Konami include the dating simulation '''', ''
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles '' and ''
Tiny Toon Adventures '' series, are still remembered fondly. 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 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.
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.
