Data East Corporation (データイースト株式会社, Dēta Īsuto kabushiki gaisha), also abbreviated as DECO, was a Japanese video game, pinball and electronic engineering company.

A small number of Data East video games are owned by other companies, notably Paon DP.

Some of Data East's other most famous coin-op arcade games from its 1980s heyday include Heavy Barrel, Bad Dudes Vs. DragonNinja, Sly Spy, RoboCop, Bump 'n' Jump, Trio The Punch – Never Forget Me..., Karnov and Atomic Runner Chelnov.

[a][2] In North America, the subsidiary Data East USA was the first licensee announced for the Nintendo Entertainment System[21] and consequently was one of the four original third-party publishers to release games for the console in late 1986.

[22] In Japan, Data East would become a licensee for several home systems over the years, notably the Famicom (1986), PC Engine (1988), Game Boy (1990), Mega Drive (1991), Super NES (1991), Neo Geo (1993), Sega Saturn (1995), PlayStation (1996), WonderSwan (1999) and NeoGeo Pocket Color (1999).

[15] Several of Data East's video games series, such as Tantei Jingūji Saburō, Glory of Hercules and Metal Max, were created specifically for home consoles.

Some of the properties that Data East licensed for its pinball machines included Guns N' Roses, Star Wars, Back to the Future, Batman, RoboCop, The Simpsons, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

[24] Although all of Data East's pinball games were developed in the United States, several were released in Japan by the parent company.

No official announcement of this was made; instead, calls to Data East USA's offices were greeted with a prerecorded message from marketing manager Jay Malpas stating that the company had closed its doors before Christmas 1996.

[26] The Japanese parent company itself announced its departure from the arcade industry entirely on December 4, 1997[27] and had accumulated a debt estimated at 3.3 billion yen.

[30] For the following three years, Data East sold negative ion generators,[31] continued to develop compatible devices for NTT DoCoMo phones and licensed some of its old video games to other companies.

Consequently, in April 2003, Data East filed for bankruptcy and was finally declared bankrupt by a Tokyo district court on June 25, 2003.

[47][48] Data East's former building in Ogikubo, which was located in an area largely residential, was demolished around 2014 and replaced by an apartment or condominium construction.