Aruze

Aruze Corp. (アルゼ株式会社, Aruze Kabushiki-gaisha) (JASDAQ: 6425) (pronounced "Ah-roo-zeh"), is a Japanese manufacturer of pachinko, slot machines 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. The company also 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).

Universal
Universal Lease Co., Ltd was established in December 1969. It later changed its name to Universal Distributing of Nevada (UDN). Universal's greatest hit game was 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. In January 2005, the company became a wholly owned subsidiary of Aruze.

Relationship with SNK
In 2000, Aruze bought out SNK Corporation, 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 were later sued by SNK-Playmore founder Eikichi Kawasaki for copyright infringement over SNK's intellectual properties, claiming their use was unauthorized by Playmore. He specifically accused the PachiSlot Aruze Kingdom series, which credited Aruze for creating The King of Fighters characters. In January 2004, a preliminary decision was handed down by the Osaka District Court favoring SNK Playmore and was awarded 5.64 billion yen in damages.