A huge number of video game companies got their start in the 1970s and 1980s, and one such successful example was SNK Corporation – the home of such franchises as Metal Slug and The King of Fighters. SNK was first founded as Shin Nihon Kikaku (which translates to “New Japan Project”) in 1973, and throughout the rest of that decade developed coin-operated game machines. Their first two titles were 1979’s Ozma Wars and 1980’s Safari Rally.
In 1986, the company formally rebranded as SNK Corporation, and that same year they would release Ikari Warriors. The game proved to be so popular that it was licensed and ported to a number of home systems, including the Atari 2600, Commodore 64, Apple II, and Nintendo Entertainment System. However, the company wasn’t immune to the fallout from the video game industry crash of just a few years prior – SNK opted to become a third-party licensee for Nintendo around this time, as Nintendo was seemingly unaffected by the crash.
In 1990, SNK debuted the Neo Geo family, which was initially successful thanks to popular games that included The King of Fighters, Super Sidekicks, Art of Fighting, Samurai Shodown, Fatal Fury, and others. However, despite seeing some success in Japan, the various Neo Geo systems didn’t make much of a dent in the U.S. market, due to the hefty price tags of both the console and the games themselves. The Neo Geo console carried a massive price tag of up to $650 at one point, which was pretty prohibitively expensive for the casual gaming market.
The Neo Geo lineup of systems included the Neo Geo CD, the Hyper Neo-Geo 64, the Neo Geo Pocket, and the Neo Geo Pocket Color. Many of the most successful games on these systems would eventually be ported to other, more successful consoles.
By 2000, the SNK Corporation was pretty down on its luck after a decade of financial failure, and the company would be bought out by Aruze, which was a manufacturer of pachinko machines. Accordingly, many popular SNK titles were featured on pachinko machines, though Aruze’s under-funding of the video game department meant SNK titles weren’t finding much success. However, SNK characters did find a new audience thanks to a crossover with Capcom, when that developer debuted Capcom vs. SNK – a fighting game featuring Street Fighter characters facing off against those from The King of Fighters.
Throughout most of the aughts, SNK struggled, filing for bankruptcy, licensing the rights to its intellectual properties to various other companies, and reorganizing into SNK Playmore. However, more recently, SNK has seen somewhat of a bounceback, with a successful launch of The King of Fighters XIV and the reintroduction of the company’s original slogan: “The Future is Now.”
