Jaleco

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Logo before PCCW

2002-2006. This logo was first used by US division Jaleco Entertainment. When PCCW Japan changed its name to Jaleco, it adopted the logo.

Jaleco was founded as Japan Leisure Corporation on October 3, 1974. In 1982, the company started developing and manufacturing arcade video games; as a result Japan Leisure Corporation shortened its name to Jaleco the same year. Jaleco was a video game company whose focus lay in arcade titles, as well as titles for the NES and other popular computer and video game consoles of the 1980s and 1990s, most notably the Bases Loaded series and Carrier. The U.S. arm of Jaleco was Jaleco USA based near Chicago.

By the year 2000, Jaleco, still active in the development of arcade and console video games, hadn't produced any hit title in years and was in a struggling state. Its American division Jaleco USA had already left the arcade industry in 1993. Then on November 1, 2000, Jaleco was acquired by Hong-Kong company PCCW. Jaleco was renamed PCCW Japan, thus giving the PCCW Group a foothold in Japan. PCCW heavily restructured the company, shutting down Jaleco's arcade division and other non-profitable departments in order to focus on video game for consoles of the sixth generation era. PCCW Japan itself acquired on April 2001 the VR-1 Group which included VR-1 Entertainment, a U.S developer of massively multiplayer online role playing games, in order to bring a more global focus to its current and future software endeavors. On October 2002, PCCW Japan merged Jaleco USA and VR-1 Entertainment to form Jaleco Entertainment, its new U.S division that would be based in Buffalo, New York instead of Illinois. PCCW Japan reverted its name back to Jaleco in 2004.

Jaleco is today a highly active publisher of video games for Microsoft's Xbox, PC games, and Sony's PlayStation 2. It holds a top 10 publisher slot moving into 2004. Jaleco is the official subsidiary of the whole PCCW Group in Japan which includes many activities unrelated to videogaming such as music, web application and mobile phone content.

On May 31, 2006, Jaleco's board of directors opted for a change of name from Jaleco Ltd to Jaleco Holding Ltd (JASDAQ: 7954) and, in the process, spun off the video game division into a separate company that would take the name of Jaleco Ltd. As such, Jaleco Holding is now the name of the company that has existed since 1974, while Jaleco Ltd is the new company that was established on July 3, 2006 as a wholly owned subsidiary of Jaleco Holding. However some might consider the new Jaleco Ltd as the "real" Jaleco since this is the company involved in the video game industry; Jaleco's original business.

Other then Jaleco Ltd, Jaleco Holding's subsidiaries are Japan Central Real Estate Co and PantaRhei Securites Co.