Tōru Iwatani is a Japanese video game designer who spent much of his career working for Namco. He is best known as the creator of the arcade game Pac-Man (1980). In 2009, he was chosen by IGN as one of the top 100 game creators of all time.
Iwatani at the 2011 Game Developers Conference
Namco Limited was a Japanese multinational video game and entertainment company, headquartered in Ōta, Tokyo. It held several international branches, including Namco America in Santa Clara, California, Namco Europe in London, Namco Taiwan in Kaohsiung, and Shanghai Namco in mainland China.
Headquarters in Ōta, Tokyo
Trade advertisement from Play Meter featuring Masaya Nakamura announcing the change of corporate name
Namco became one of the first third-party developers for the Famicom, with their arcade game ports increasing system sales.
Namco's unreleased 16-bit console had hardware comparable to the Nintendo Super Famicom.