page_title: Konami
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Konami / History
caption_attribution_description: The May 2014 MCM London Comic Con at the ExCel Centre.
context_page_description: Konami Holdings Corporation is a Japanese entertainment and gambling conglomerate. It operates as a product distributor, video game developer and publisher company. Konami has casinos around the world and operates health and physical fitness clubs across Japan.
  Konami's video game franchises include Metal Gear, Silent Hill, Castlevania, Contra, Frogger, Gradius, Yu-Gi-Oh!, Suikoden, and Pro Evolution Soccer. Additionally, Konami owns Bemani, known for Dance Dance Revolution and Beatmania, as well as the assets of former game developer Hudson Soft, known for Bomberman, Adventure Island, Bonk, Bloody Roar, and Star Soldier. Konami is the twentieth-largest game company in the world by revenue.
  The company originated in 1969 as a jukebox rental and repair business in Toyonaka, Osaka, Japan, by Kagemasa Kōzuki, who remains the company's chairman. The name Konami is a portmanteau of the names Kagemasa Kozuki, Yoshinobu Nakama, and Tatsuo Miyasako.
  Konami is headquartered in Tokyo. In the United States, Konami manages its video game business from offices in El Segundo, California and its casino gaming business from offices in Paradise, Nevada.
context_section_description: The company was founded on March 21, 1969, and was officially incorporated under the name Konami Industry Co., Ltd. (コナミ工業株式会社, Konami Kōgyō Kabushiki Gaisha) on March 19, 1973. The company's founder and chairman, Kagemasa Kozuki, ran a jukebox rental and repair business in Toyonaka, Osaka before transforming the business into a manufacturer of amusement machines for video arcades. Their first coin-operated video game was released in 1978, and they began exporting products to the United States the following year.
  Konami began to achieve success with hit arcade games such as 1981's Frogger, Scramble, and Super Cobra, many of which were licensed to other companies for stateside release, including Stern Electronics and Gremlin Industries.  They eventually established their U.S. subsidiary, Konami of America, Inc. in 1982. It was during this period that Konami began expanding their video game business into the home consumer market following a brief stint releasing video games for the Atari 2600 in 1982 for the U.S. market. The company would release numerous games for the MSX home computer standard in 1983, followed by the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1985. Numerous Konami franchises were established during this period on both platforms, as well as the arcades, such as Gradius, Castlevania, Twin Bee, Ganbare Goemon, Contra and Metal Gear. Due to the success of their NES games, Konami's earnings grew from $10 million in 1987 to $300 million in 1991.
  In June 1991, Konami's legal name was changed to Konami Co., Ltd. (コナミ株式会社, Konami Kabushiki Gaisha) and their headquarters would later be relocated to Minato, Tokyo in April 1993. The company started supporting the 16-bit video game consoles during this period, starting with the Super NES in 1990, followed by the PC Engine in 1991 and the Sega Genesis in 1992.
  After the launch of the Sega Saturn and PlayStation in 1994, Konami became a business divisional organization with the formation of various Konami Computer Entertainment (KCE) subsidiaries, starting with KCE Tokyo and KCE Osaka (which would be later known as KCE Studios) in April 1995, followed by KCE Japan (later known as Kojima Productions) in April 1996. Each KCE subsidiary would end up creating different intellectual properties such as KCE Tokyo's Silent Hill series and KCE Japan's Metal Gear Solid series (a revival of the Metal Gear series on MSX). In 1997, Konami started producing rhythm games for arcades under the Bemani brand and branched off into the collectible card game business with the launch of the Yu-Gi-Oh! Trading Card Game.
  In July 2000, the company's legal English name was changed to Konami Corporation, but the Japanese legal name remained the same. As the company transitioned into the developing video games for the sixth-generation consoles, they branched out into the health and fitness business with the acquisitions of People Co., Ltd and Daiei Olympic Sports Club, Inc., which became  Konami subsidiaries. In August 2001, the company invested in another video game publisher, Hudson Soft, which became a consolidated subsidiary after Konami accepted new third-party shares issued by them. In March 2006, Konami merged all their video game development divisions into a new subsidiary known as Konami Digital Entertainment Co. (KDE), as the parent company became a pure holding company. Their headquarters were relocated to Minato, Tokyo, in 2007.
  The absorption of Hudson Soft in 2012 resulted in the addition of several other franchises including: Adventure Island, Bonk, Bloody Roar, Bomberman, Far East of Eden and Star Soldier.
  In April 2015, Konami delisted itself from the New York Stock Exchange following the dissolution of their Kojima Productions subsidiary.  In a translated interview with Nikkei Trendy Net published in the following month, the newly appointed CEO of Konami Digital Entertainment, Hideki Hayakawa, announced that Konami would shift their focus towards mobile gaming for a while, claiming that "mobile is where the future of gaming lies." The trade name of the company was changed from Konami Cor
caption: The Yu-Gi-Oh! Trading Card Game is developed and published by Konami. In 2011, Guinness World Records called it the top-selling trading card game in history, with 25.2 billion cards sold worldwide.[9]
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