Namco developed the original Pac-Man arcade game.
The game was created inside Namco’s Japanese video-game division by a team led by designer Toru Iwatani. Development began in early 1979, and the arcade game was released in Japan on May 22, 1980, initially under the title Puck Man. Namco both developed and published the Japanese arcade version.
The company had entered video games after acquiring the struggling Japanese division of Atari in 1974. Pac-Man became Namco’s breakthrough hit and eventually one of the most influential arcade games ever made. Its maze-chase format, colorful characters, and nonviolent theme helped broaden arcade gaming beyond the space-shooter games that dominated the late 1970s.
A common mix-up comes from the North American release. Namco licensed the game to Midway Manufacturing, which distributed it in the United States in 1980. Midway therefore handled the North American release, but it did not develop the original game. Nintendo and Atari later released Pac-Man versions on their own hardware, but those ports do not change the original developer credit.