News: Squenix hopes to swallow Taito

August 22, 2005, 03:01 AM

by chazumaru, via S-E/Taito -
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Not exactly the most predictable move in the current craze of company mergers: Taito may be on its way to being absorbed by Square-Enix, which itself was already one of the stronger business alliances in the japanese industry (after Sega Sammy). Game Watch reveals that Squenix is buying out 247.900 Taito actions, which will make it the main shareholder with 67% of all shares. Taito and its current major shareholders agreed to the deal, and most of the transaction will be completed some time around september. The deal can be explained by Taito's game catalogue being complementary with Square-Enix's and also by Taito's presence in the japanese amusement machines business through some arcade centers, numerous popular games, and their recent Type-X board. It might be coincidental, but Taito has also been in charge of adapting and releasing some Falcom role-playing games on the PlayStation 2 (though Konami has been doing it in the US). Were they to continue that policy, Square-Enix would further strengthen its position as the major RPG publisher on consoles.

So you can have fun wondering what insane crossovers might come out of this merger, here is a list of various Taito intellectual properties: Space Invaders, Bubble Bobble, Puzzle Bobble, Elevator Action, Darius, Qix, Rastan Saga, Hat Trick Hero, Cadash, Layer Section, Violence Fight, Camel Try, Power Blade, Lightbringer, Estopolis (a.k.a. Lufia), Chase H.Q., Cleopatra Fortune, Runark, Metal Black, Don Doko Don, Kurikinton and Battle Gear among many others. Most of them can be found on the recent Taito Memories compilations for PS2 which we have mentioned numerous times on IC.