and its predecessor snk corporation . for other uses see snk disambiguation . snk playmore corporation 1 native name snk formerly called snk corporation 1978 2001 playmore corporation 2001 2003 type kabushiki gaisha subsidiary industry video game industry founded july 22 1978 ; 38 years ago 1978 07 22 as snk corporation august 1 2001 ; 15 years ago 2001 08 01 as playmore corporation headquarters suita osaka japan key people eikichi kawasaki founder koichi toyama president & ceo 1 products video game consoles arcade games pachislot machines mobile games revenue 2 900 000 000 2015 2 net income 115 000 000 2015 2 owner orient securities co. ltd. 37games 3 number of employees 123 as of february 2016 4 website snkplaymore.co.jp snk playmore corporation snk kabushiki gaisha snk pureimoa 1 officially branded as snk 5 is a japanese video game hardware and software company successor to the original snk corporation and current owner of the snk video game brand and neo geo video game platform . 6 the original snk corporation was founded in suita osaka japan on july 22 1978 by eikichi kawasaki . initially called shin nihon kikaku lit . new japan project the name was shortened to snk corporation in 1986 . snk is most notable as creator of the neo geo family of arcade home and handheld game consoles beginning in 1990 . the neo geo line was halted in 2001 when financial troubles forced snk corporation to close . 7 anticipating the end of the company kawasaki founded playmore corporation in august 1 2001 . 8 by october playmore had acquired all of the intellectual property of the former snk corporation . on july 7 2003 playmore corporation was renamed to snk playmore corporation to more firmly establish itself as the successor to the snk brand and legacy . 9 traditionally snk operated primarily as a video game developer publisher and hardware manufacturer focusing on arcade games but also working on console and pc games . in 2004 the company started manufacturing pachislot machines 10 which the company leaned heavily into before withdrawing from the market in 2015 . 11 in 2009 the company also entered an active wave of mobile game development . 12 classic snk franchises like metal slug samurai shodown and the king of fighters feature heavily in their recent offerings . on april 25 2016 snk dropped the playmore name from its logo and reintroduced its original slogan the future is now as a means to signify a return to snk s rich gaming history . 5 contents 1 history 1.1 beginnings 1.2 multi video system 1.3 neo geo 1.4 end of the company 1.5 rebirth 1.6 acquisition 2 subsidiaries and related corporations 2.1 former 3 see also 4 references 5 external links history beginnings when eikichi kawasaki noticed the rapid growth that was occurring in the coin operated video game market he expanded snk to include the development and marketing of stand alone coin op games . the first two known titles released were ozma wars 1979 a vertically scrolling space shooter and safari rally 1980 a maze game . game quality improved over time most notably with vanguard 1981 a side scrolling space shooter that many consider the precursor to modern classics such as gradius and r type . snk licensed the game to centuri for distribution in north america who ultimately started manufacturing and distributing the game themselves when profits exceeded expectations . 13 the 1982 snk logo combined with original 1978 s logo the north american division snk corporation of america was opened on october 20 1981 . citation needed they established themselves in sunnyvale california with the intent of delivering their own brand of coin operated games to arcades in north america . the man chosen to run the american operation was john rowe the eventual founder of tradewest and current president and ceo of high moon studios . snk corporation in japan had at this point shifted its focus solely toward developing and licensing video games for arcade use and later for early consoles . between 1979 and 1986 they produced 23 stand alone arcade games . highlights from this period include mad crasher 1984 alpha mission 1985 and athena 1986 a game that gained a large following when it was ported to the nes in 1987 . their most successful game from this time frame was ikari warriors released in 1986 . ikari warriors was so popular that it was eventually licensed and ported to the atari 2600 atari 7800 commodore 64 commodore amiga amstrad cpc apple ii zx spectrum and nes . they followed up the game with two sequels victory road and ikari iii the rescue . 13 even at this point the home market was still suffering from the fallout caused by the north american video game crash of 1983 . nevertheless one console manufacturer nintendo seemed to weather the crash fairly unscathed . snk signed up to become a third party licensee for nintendo s famicom system in 1985 and opened a second branch in the united states based in torrance california . named snk home entertainment they handled the north american distribution and marketing of the company s products for home consoles . by this time john rowe had left the company to form tradewest which went on to market snk s ikari warriors series in north america . subsequently both halves of snk america were now being presided over by paul jacobs who is known primarily for having helped launch the company s neo geo system outside of asia . 13 in response to strong sales of the company s nes ports snk began to dabble in the development of original software designed specifically for the nes console . two games came out of this effort baseball stars 1989 and crystalis 1990 known as god slayer in japan . 1989 also marked the release of two new home video game consoles in north america the sega genesis and nec s joint project with hudson soft the turbografx 16 . nintendo followed suit with a new system in 1991 the super nes . rather than become involved in the early 90s system wars snk corporation in japan along with snk corporation of america chose to refocus their efforts on the arcade market leaving other third parties such as romstar and takara to license and port snk s properties to the various home consoles of the time with help from snk s american home entertainment division . with console ports mainly being handled outside the company they moved on to developing snk branded arcade equipment . 13 snk also licensed tiger electronics to market handheld electronic games from some of its brands . multi video system in 1988 snk created the idea of a modular cabinet for arcades ; up to that point arcade cabinets typically contained only a single game . when an arcade operator wanted to switch or replace that game they would have to completely remove the internals of the existing cabinet or exchange the entire setup for another game . snk s new system called neo geo mvs short for multi video system featured multiple games in a single cabinet and used a cartridge based storage mechanism . the system debuted in 1990 and could contain one two four or six separate games in a single cabinet . in order to swap in a new game all the operator had to do was remove one cartridge and exchange it for another . the mvs was an immediate success . arcade operators loved it because the setup time required for each game was nearly nonexistent the floor space required was minimal and the cost outlay for new cartridges was barely 500 less than half of what a traditional arcade unit cost at the time . snk also wanted to take advantage of people s desire to play arcade games at home but without making the same compromises on cpu and memory performance that typical home consoles were forced to make . 13 neo geo main article neo geo system in 1990 the neo geo family was created when the company released a home version of the mvs a single cartridge unit called the neo geo advanced entertainment system or more simply the neo geo aes . initially the aes was only available for rent or for use in hotel settings but snk quickly began selling the system through stores when customer response indicated that people were willing to spend the money . several franchises of games derived from it including sengoku the king of fighters the last blade super sidekicks art of fighting metal slug burning fight samurai shodown and fatal fury the king of fighters and metal slug series are still continued on newer consoles . snk also helped publish third party neo geo games including adk s world heroes noise factory s rage of the dragons and sengoku 3 sunsoft s galaxy fight universal warriors and waku waku 7 and techn s japan s 1995 double dragon arcade game and voltage fighter gowcaizer . besides the neo geo series of games they are notable for some stand alone arcade games and home console ports of them including vanguard athena ikari warriors psycho soldier touch down fever p.o.w. prisoners of war and street smart . 13 compared to other consoles at the time the neo geo aes had much better graphics and sound . it featured two cpus a 16 32 bit motorola 68000 main processor running at 12 mhz and a zilog z80 backup processor running at 4 mhz . the system s main cpu was just under 50 % faster than the 68000 processor found in sega s genesis console . the neo geo aes also had the benefit of specialized audio and video chipsets . a custom video chipset allowed the system to display 4 096 colors and 380 individual sprites onscreen simultaneously compared to 64 simultaneous colors 2 background tile planes and 80 individual sprites for the genesis while the onboard yamaha ym2610 sound chip gave the system 15 channels of sound with seven channels reserved specifically for prerecorded adpcm.however since the neo geo s graphics processor did not support any background planes they had to be simulated using sprites . 13 this type of power carried a large price tag ; the console debuted at 599 which included two joystick controllers and a game either baseball stars or nam 1975 . within a few months of the system s introduction in north america snk increased the cost to 649 and changed the pack in game to magician lord . the console sold for 399 with one control stick and without a game . other games cost 200 and up each . each joystick controller was a full 2 1 2 inches tall measured 11 inches long by 8 inches across and contained the same four button layout as the arcade mvs cabinet . the quality of the games varied . some such as the super sidekicks series were all new creations while others were updated versions of earlier successes such as baseball stars professional . snk games were graphically bold and bright with games such as top hunter roddy & cathy and the famous metal slug series being distinctive and instantly recognizable contributing to the system s success in the arcades . they also produced the neo geo cd the hyper neo geo 64 and two handheld systems the neo geo pocket and pocket color . several of their more famous franchise titles originally created for the mvs and aes systems have been ported to other consoles such as the sega genesis saturn and dreamcast super nintendo entertainment system playstation and playstation 2 xbox and more recently the wii . the neo geo pocket was snk s original handheld system . it was released in japan in late 1998 but quickly discontinued in 1999 in favor of the neo geo