Aruze
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Aruze Corp. (アルゼ株式会社 Aruze Kabushiki-gaisha?) (JASDAQ: 6425), formerly Universal Distributing of Nevada (UDN), is a Japanese manufacturer of pachinko, slot machine and other gaming products. Aruze possesses licenses to both manufacture and distribute casino machines in the American states of Nevada, Mississippi and New Jersey. Aruze Gaming America is a 100%-owned subsidiary based in Las Vegas maintains affiliates in Australia (Aruze Gaming Australia, formerly Pacific Gaming Pty. Ltd.) and South Africa (Aruze Gaming Africa (Pty) Ltd. (formerly Universal Distributors of Nevada South Africa)).
[edit] History
Universal Lease Co., Ltd was established in December 1969, in January 2005 UDN becomes wholly owned subsidiary of Aruze. Universal's greatest hit was the game Mr. Do! in 1982, which spawned four sequels. Lady Bug was also a successful game. Cashing-in on the success of laserdisc video games, Universal released Super Don Quix-ote in 1984, on a new standardized laserdisc video game system they called the Universal System 1. A new game was planned every six months for the Universal System 1, including a laserdisc adventure game based on Mr. Do!, but the company stopped producing arcade games in 1985, and Super Don Quix-ote ended up being the only game released for the system.
[edit] Relationship with SNK
In 2000, the company bought out the video game company SNK, maker of the Neo-Geo. In exchange for the use of SNK's popular characters on their pachinko and slot machines, and a few sub-par games for the Neo-Geo, Aruze held on to SNK's IPs until SNK reformed as Playmore and bought them back in 2001.
On October 2002, Aruze was sued for copyright infringement over SNK's intellectual properties which was unauthorized by Playmore in which they still owned, for 6.2 billion yen in damages. In January 2004, a preliminary decision was handed down by the Osaka District Court favoring SNK Playmore and was awarded 5.64 billion yen.
