released in Japan in July and in North America in October. While it proved to be only a moderate success in Japan, being outperformed by Namco's own Galaxian, Pac-Man was an astronomical success in North America, quickly selling over 100,000 arcade units and becoming the best-selling and highest-grossing arcade game of all time. Pac-Man has since become Namco's most-successful video game of all time and the company's signature title. After its release, Iwatani was promoted within the ranks of Namco, eventually becoming responsible for overseeing the administration of the company. Despite the success of Pac-Man, Iwatani did not receive any kind of bonus or change of salary. An often-repeated story is that Iwatani left Namco furious at the lack of any recognition or additions to his pay, which he has claimed to be false. Iwatani went on to design Libble Rabble in 1983, a twin-stick puzzler based on a game he had played in his childhood. Iwatani claims Libble Rabble to be his favorite game. He also worked as a producer for many of Namco's arcade games, including Rally-X, Galaga, Pole Position, Ridge Racer and Time Crisis. From April 2005, he taught the subject of Character Design Studies at Osaka University of Arts as visiting professor. Iwatani left Namco in March 2007 to become a full-time lecturer at Tokyo Polytechnic University. Iwatani returned to his Pac-Man roots in 2007 when he developed Pac-Man Championship Edition for the Xbox 360, which he states is the final game he will develop. On June 3, 2010, at the Festival of Games, Iwatani received a certificate from Guinness World Records for Pac-Man having the most "coin-operated arcade machines" installed worldwide: 293,822. The record was set and recognized in 2005, and recorded in the Guinness World Records: Gamer's Edition 2008. He was portrayed in the Adam Sandler sci-fi comedy adventure Pixels by actor Denis Akiyama, while Iwatani himself has a cameo as an arcade repairman. Works Writings References External links Detailed Toru Iwatani biography at PAC-MAN Museum Q&A: Pac-Man Creator Reflects on 30 Years of Dot-Eating at Wired.com 1955 births People from Meguro Living people Japanese video game designers Namco Pac-Man