Konami
( ) is a leading
developer and
publisher of numerous popular and strong-selling Toys,
trading cards,
Anime,
Tokusatsu, and
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
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
PCs, producing games for the
MSX and
Nintendo's
Family Computer ("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
Torrance, California in
1982 but moved to
Illinois in
1984. Also 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. (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
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 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 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 remains 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 inquires 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
ChÅseishin 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. [
1]
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". This number appears in many Konami
telephone numbers and as a
high score in Konami games.
In 2006, Konami is producing movies based on their popular franchises. The
Silent Hill movie was produced by Konami and
Team Silent and released on April 21st, 2006. Konami announced that they will produce a
Metal Gear Solid movie and a
Castlevania movie.
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 survival horror
Silent Hill series, the action/shooter
Contra series, the platform/adventure
Ganbare Goemon series, the espionage action
Metal Gear series, the console role-playing
Suikoden series, the music-oriented
Bemani series (which includes
Dance Dance Revolution,
Beatmania,
Guitar Freaks, and
Drummania, among others). 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, but other American productions like
The Simpsons,
Bucky O Hare,
Wild West C.O.W.-Boys of Moo Mesa and
Steven Spielberg's movie
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 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
powerups 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 2006, Konami started producing movies based on their popular franchises. Konami produced the recently released
Silent Hill movie and has announced that they will produce a
Metal Gear Solid movie and a
Castlevania movie.
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.
*
List of Konami games*
Ultra (company)*
Treasure Co. Ltd*
Hudson Soft*
Konami CodeOfficial
*
Konami Global*
Konami Corporation (Japan)*
Konami America*
Konami of Europe*
Konami of Europe Arcade Division*
Konami Corporation entry at
MobyGames*
The History of Konami
