Editing SNK (section)

=== Beginnings (1973–1981) ===
SNK was founded in 1973 as Shin Nihon Kikaku and reorganized on July 22, 1978 as a stock company (''kabushiki gaisha'') under the name "Shin Nihon Kikaku Corporation". When Eikichi Kawasaki noticed rapid growth in the coin-operated video game market, he expanded Shin Nihon Kikaku to include the development and marketing of stand-alone coin-op games.

The company was nicknamed "Shin Nihon Kikaku" in katakana at first; however, since 1981, it has been changed to "'''SNK'''" by taking the initials from the Roman alphabet (Shin Nihon Kikaku). The English copyright notation was also "'''SNK CORPORATION'''". It established itself in Sunnyvale, California, to deliver its own brand of coin-operated games to arcades in North America. SNK chose John Rowe to head its American operation.

The first two titles that SNK released were ''Ozma Wars'' (1979), a vertical space shooter, and ''Safari Rally'' (1980), a maze game. Game quality improved over time, with SNK outsourcing development of the games ''Sasuke vs. Commander'' (1980) and ''Vanguard'' (1981) to then-inexperienced Tose. SNK licensed various games to Centuri for distribution in North America, motivating it to start manufacturing and distributing games by itself when profits exceeded projections. In part due to the success of ''Vanguard'', SNK began to gain fame and reputation. An American branch named '''SNK Electronics Corporation''' opened on October 20, 1981.