Konami

Konami Corporation is a 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 Kozuki, Yoshinobu Nakama, Hiro Matsuda, and Shokichi Ishihara, 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 fitness clubs in Japan.

History
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 PCs, producing games for the MSX, Atari 2600, and Nintendo's Nintendo Entertainment System ("Famicom") game consoles. 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.

In February 2003, 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 Ultra Games, 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 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 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.

Konami is today the 4th largest game developer in Japan after "Nintendo Co Ltd" (1st), "Sega Sammy Holdings" (2nd) and "Namco Bandai Holdings" (3rd).

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 Tokimeki Memorial series, the vampire hunting Castlevania series, the action/shooter Contra series, the platform/adventure Ganbare Goemon series, the espionage action Metal Gear series, the console role-playing Suikoden series, and the rythmic dancing Dance Dance Revolution (aka Dancing Stage) series. Konami is particularly notable for its side-scrolling shoot-em-up games (also known as SHMUPS), such as Gradius, Parodius, and Twinbee. Konami's games based on cartoon licenses, especially the Batman: The Animated Series, 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