Universal Entertainment Corporation, which was previously called Aruze Corporation (Japanese: アルゼ株式会社, Hepburn: Aruze Kabushiki-gaisha), is a Japanese company that makes and sells pachinko machines, slot machines, arcade games, and other gaming products. It also creates and publishes video games. Aruze has permission to make and sell casino machines in the U.S. states of Nevada, Mississippi, and New Jersey. The company’s main office is in Tokyo. Aruze owns the rights to the video game series Shadow Hearts. Until February 18, 2012, the company owned about 21% of Wynn Resorts. On November 1, 2009, Aruze Corporation changed its name to Universal Entertainment Corporation.

Universal

Universal Lease Co., Ltd. was founded in December 1969. Later, it changed its name to Universal Ltd. in Japan. Universal Distributing Company was created as an American branch to sell video games directly to businesses, and it was later named Universal USA.

The company first gained success by making arcade video games that copied popular games. Scratch (1977) was a copy of Breakout and became the third highest-selling arcade game in Japan in 1977, behind Speed Race DX and Breakout. Scratch was also Japan’s fourth highest-selling arcade game in 1978. Cosmic Monsters (1978) was a copy of Space Invaders and became Japan’s sixth highest-selling arcade game that same year.

Eventually, Universal stopped making copies and began creating original games. Get A Way (1978) was a sit-down racing game that used a 16-bit central processing unit (CPU), which the company advertised as the world’s first 16-bit game. It was among Japan’s top twenty highest-selling arcade games in 1978.

The company later released Space Panic (1980), a very influential platform game, and Lady Bug (1981), a maze game. Universal’s most successful game was Mr. Do! (1982), which led to three sequels: Mr. Do’s Castle, Mr. Do’s Wild Ride, and Do Run Run. To take advantage of the popularity of laserdisc video games, Universal released Super Don Quix-ote in 1984 on a new system called the Universal System 1. A new game was planned every six months for this system, including an unreleased laserdisc adventure game based on Mr. Do!, but Universal stopped making arcade games in 1985. Super Don Quix-ote was the only game released for the system. Universal Distributing of Nevada (UDN) was created to sell Universal’s first slot machines directly to the gaming industry. A division called Universal Playland was formed to continue the arcade game business.

Several Universal games were designed by Kazutoshi Ueda, including Mr. Do! (1982). Later, Ueda left Universal and worked at Tehkan (now Tecmo), then co-founded Atlus, where he helped create the Megami Tensei series. His work at Universal influenced Tehkan’s Michitaka Tsuruta, who later designed Guzzler (1983), Bomb Jack (1984), Solomon’s Key (1986), and the Captain Tsubasa series.

In January 2005, Universal became a fully owned subsidiary of Aruze. Aruze Corporation changed its name to Universal Entertainment Corporation on November 1, 2009.

On February 2, 2023, Aruze Gaming filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the United States.

Relationship with SNK

In 2000, Aruze purchased SNK Corporation, the company that created the Neo Geo. In return for allowing Aruze to use SNK's popular characters on pachinko and slot machines and for providing a few Neo Geo games, Aruze agreed to financially support SNK. Instead, Aruze started a plan to sell SNK's assets and reduce costs. This included allowing other companies to use SNK's intellectual property (such as the Metal Slug, The King of Fighters, and Sengoku series), closing unprofitable departments, stopping sales outside Japan, ending support for the Neo Geo arcade system, and selling stored inventory. By 2001, many SNK employees realized Aruze was not trying to save the company but instead letting it fail after selling most of its valuable assets. As a result, Eikichi Kawasaki and other SNK executives left to form a new company called Playmore on August 1, 2001. During this time, many other employees also left to join other companies or start their own businesses.

On November 1, 2001, Aruze announced that its subsidiary, SNK, had filed for bankruptcy on October 30, 2001, and all of its assets were available for sale. Playmore purchased most of the sold assets and positioned itself as the new company to continue SNK's work in the video game industry. Playmore also acquired companies started by former SNK employees, such as Brezzasoft and Noise Factory, to help develop new games for the Neo Geo arcade system. Playmore quickly expanded by opening new offices in North America and Europe, announcing new Neo Geo arcade games, creating games for consoles and portable systems for the first time in years, and reestablishing sales channels for Neo Geo home and portable systems. To show its connection to SNK, Playmore officially changed its name to SNK Playmore in 2003.

In October 2002, Playmore founder Eikichi Kawasaki sued Aruze for using SNK's intellectual property without permission. In January 2004, the Osaka District Court ruled in favor of SNK Playmore and awarded the company 5.64 billion yen (US$57,627,468) in damages.

UPL

UPL Co., Ltd (株式会社ユーピーエル), also known as Universal Playland (ユニバーサルプレイランド), was a video game company based in Oyama, Tochigi, Japan. It was created in 1972 to continue the arcade business of Universal Entertainment. On November 1, 1983, the company changed its name to UPL. The company went out of business on March 4, 1992.

Later, the company’s founder, Tsutomu Fujisawa, started a new video game company named Scarab. This company later changed its name to feelplus.

In May 2016, UPL sold the rights to its games to Hamster Corporation. Hamster Corporation then released these games as part of the Arcade Archives collection.

Games

• Scratch (1977)
• Cosmic Monsters (1978)
• Cosmic Alien (1979)
• Cosmic Guerilla (1979)
• Galaxy Wars (1979, released by Taito)
• Get A Way (1979)
• Cheeky Mouse (1980)
• Devil Zone (1980)
• Magical Spot (1980)
• No Man's Land (1980)
• Space Panic (1980)
• Cosmic Avenger (1981)
• Lady Bug (1981)
• Snap Jack (1981)
• Zero Hour (1981)
• Mr. Do! (1982)
• Mrs. Dynamite (1982 – Unreleased)
• Space Raider (1982)
• Eggs (1983, licensed from Technōs Japan)
• Mr. Do's Castle aka Mr. Do vs Unicorns (1983)
• Mr. Do's Wild Ride (1984)
• Do! Run Run (1984)
• Jumping Jack (1984)
• Kick Rider (1984)
• Super Don Quix-ote (1984)
• Captain Zap (1985 – Unreleased)
• Indoor Soccer (1985)

• Mouser (1983, released in North America by Cosmos)
• Nova 2001 (1983)
• Ninja-kun Majou no Bouken (1984, released by Taito)
• Return of the Invaders (1984, released by Taito)
• Penguin-kun Wars (1985)
• Raiders5 (1985, released by Taito)
• XX Mission (1986, released in North America by United Artists Theatre Amusements)
• Ark Area (1987)
• Mutant Night (1987)
• Ninja-Kid II (1987, released in the USA by World Games as Rad Action, and by United Amusements as JT-104)
• Atomic Robo-Kid (1988, released in North America by Nikom)
• Omega Fighter (1989, released in North America by American Sammy)
• Otogizoushi Urashima Mahjong (1989)
• Task Force Harrier (1989, released in North America by American Sammy)
• Bio-ship Paladin (1990, released in North America by American Sammy)
• US-AAF Mustang (1990)
• Vandyke (1991)
• Acrobat Mission (1991)
• Black Heart (1991)
• Koutetsu Yousai Strahl (1992)

• Ninja Taro (published outside of Japan by American Sammy)

• Atomic Robo-Kid (ported by Treco)
• Bio-ship Paladin (ported by Aisystem Tokyo)

• Atomic Robo-Kid (ported by System Sacom)

• Acrobat Mission (ported by Teichiku)
• Super Ninja-kun (published by Jaleco)

• Atomic Robo-Kid Special
• Gomola Speed