is a Japanese video game franchise developed, published and owned by Bandai Namco Entertainment, a video game publisher that was previously known as

Namco was a Japanese multinational video game and entertainment company, headquartered in Ōta, Tokyo. It held several international branches, including Namco America in Santa Clara, California, Namco Europe in London, Namco Taiwan in Kaohsiung, ...

. Entries have been developed by a wide array of other video game companies, including Midway Games, Atari and Mass Media, Inc., and was created by

Toru Iwatani is a Japanese video game designer who spent much of his career working for Namco. He is best known as the creator of the arcade game ''Pac-Man'' (1980). Early life Iwatani was born in the Meguro ward of Tokyo, Japan on January 25, 1955. While ...

. The eponymous first entry was released in arcades in 1980 by Namco, and published by Midway Games in North America. Most ''Pac-Man'' games are maze chase games, however it has also delved into other genres, such as

platformers A platform game (often simplified as platformer and sometimes called a jump 'n' run game) is a sub-genre of action game, action video games in which the core objective is to move the player character between points in an environment. Platform game ...

racing In sport, racing is a competition of speed, in which competitors try to complete a given task in the shortest amount of time. Typically this involves traversing some distance, but it can be any other task involving speed to reach a specific go ...

, and

sports Sport pertains to any form of competitive physical activity or game that aims to use, maintain, or improve physical ability and skills while providing enjoyment to participants and, in some cases, entertainment to spectators. Sports can, ...

. Several games in the series have been released for a multitude of home consoles and are included in many Namco video game compilations. ''Pac-Man'' is one of the longest-running, best-selling, and highest-grossing video game franchises in history, and the game has seen regular releases for over 40 years, has sold nearly 48 million copies across all of the platforms, and has grossed over US$14 billion, most of which has been from the original arcade game. The character of Pac-Man is the official mascot of Bandai Namco, and remains one of the most recognizable video game characters in history. The franchise has been seen as important and influential, and is often used as a representation for 1980s

popular culture Popular culture (also called mass culture or pop culture) is generally recognized by members of a society as a set of practices, beliefs, artistic output (also known as, popular art or mass art) and objects that are dominant or prevalent in a ...

and video games as a whole.

Arcade games

Home console, handheld console, and PC games

Compilations

iOS and/or Android games

Pac-Man has many games on

iOS iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone; the term also include ...

and Android. Also having been released as iOS applications are ports of the original '' Pac-Man'', ''

Ms. Pac-Man is a 1982 maze arcade game developed by General Computer Corporation and published by Midway. It is the first sequel to '' Pac-Man'' (1980) and the first entry in the series to not be made by Namco. Controlling the title character, Pac-Man's ...

'', ''

Pac-Mania is a cavalier perspective maze game that was developed and released by Namco for arcades in 1987. In the game, the player controls Pac-Man as he must eat all of the dots while avoiding the colored ghosts that chase him in the maze. Eating l ...

'', and '' Pac-Man Championship Edition'' (all of these except for ''Pac-Mania'' have also been released on Android). Emulated versions of the original ''Pac-Man'' and ''

Pac-Land is a 1984 side-scrolling arcade platform game developed and released by Namco. It was distributed in North America by Bally Midway, and in Europe by Atari Games. Controlling Pac-Man (character), Pac-Man, the player must make it to the end of eac ...

'' are included in the defunct ''

Namco Arcade is a discontinued compilation of classic arcade video games, and was made for iOS and Android by Bandai Namco Entertainment. Namco Arcade was discontinued and removed from both the App Store and Google Play marketplaces on March 15, 2016. Pu ...

'' application for iOS and Android. There was also a Pac-Man themed Twitter application for iOS devices, the ''Pac-Man Live Wallpaper'' application for iOS and Android devices, the ''Pac-Man Watch Face'' for

Android Wear Wear OS (also known simply as Wear and formerly Android Wear) is a version of Google's Android operating system designed for smartwatches and other wearables. By pairing with mobile phones running Android version 6.0 "Marshmallow" or newer, or ...

, and ''Pac-Man Moving Stickers'' for iOS. In July 2015, '' Pac-Man Championship Edition DX'' was released on both

and Android. Both versions were discontinued in March 2020.

Other titles

Cancelled Pac-Man games

'' Pac-Man Museum'' was released on

Xbox Live Arcade Xbox Live Arcade (XBLA) is a digital video game download service available through the Xbox Games Store, Microsoft's digital distribution network for the Xbox 360. It focuses on smaller downloadable games from both major publishers and independent ...

(

Xbox 360 The Xbox 360 is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. As the successor to the original Xbox, it is the second console in the Xbox series. It competed with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generati ...

), PlayStation Network ( PS3) and

Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for ser ...

PC (through Steam); the planned Nintendo eShop release for Wii U and 3DS was cancelled. ''

Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures 2 ''Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures 2'', also known in Japan as is a 2014 video game for the Wii U, Nintendo 3DS, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, released on October 14, 2014. It is the sequel to '' Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures''. The game rec ...

'' was also originally going to have a Windows PC version.

Notes

References

{{Portal bar, Japan, Video games, Animation, Anime and manga, Television, United States, 1980s, 1990s Pac-Man *List Pac-Man