Shin Megami Tensei board game maker incites controversy for mentioning a rival company’s name without permission  

Shin Megami Tensei: The Board Game, an in-depth strategy game being made by Tokyo-based company ICREA under license from Atlus, has attracted controversy for mentioning another company’s name without permission. In addition to this, concerns about quality, timeline, pricing and lack of communication currently fill the popular Kickstarter campaign’s comments. 

The Kickstarter for the board game based on Atlus’s hit RPG series Shin Megami Tensei launched on November 13, doubling its goal in under 24 hours. At the time of writing, the campaign has raised just over 102 million yen, more than triple its initial goal of 30 million yen.  

However, despite this success, the Kickstarter campaign has been attracting controversy, especially among Japanese speaking users. This is because ICREA mentioned the name CMON without permission in response to a query on the Kickstarter comments page regarding the manufacture of the 72 demon figures that are scheduled to come with the game. CMON Limited is a miniature and board game publisher with a track record of successfully funding many projects on Kickstarter. 

In the above response to a commenter’s question about the quality of the figures, ICREA replied, “We are considering using the same production plant that CMON uses for manufacturing games.” While this statement might seem innocuous at first glance, it is considered poor business practice in Japan to name another company (and a competitor at that) who is not involved in a project without their permission. The reason is that such behavior may inconvenience the other company- as customers might start asking them about the project or perceiving them as a related party. 

Addressing the issue, CMON JAPAN’s official X account made a bilingual post on November 25 claiming that they are not involved in “a certain Kickstarter project.” Although it doesn’t explicitly state that they are referring to ICREA’s Shin Megami Tensei: The Board Game, commenters were quick to put two and two together.  

ICREA’s mention of CMON has led many Japanese users to express distrust towards the project, with some even cancelling their pledge. 

Aside from this issue, commenters on the Kickstarter page are expressing reservations about the comparatively short timeline for delivering the finished product to backers (the current estimate is mid 2025), and concerns as to why more detailed information about the actual gameplay (like the rule book) has not been made public yet. Backers are also worried about the quality of components, like the 72 demon figures and the game’s cards, which in the prototype feature very small writing in Japanese and English.  

Concerns have also been raised about the lack of communication from ICREA. It seems that the company has been bombarded with inquiries, questions and comments. To address this, an update from the CEO was posted on the page on November 23, stating that ICREA will be providing prompt and sincere responses as soon as possible. The statement also added that “we are currently working on improving our internal structure and enhancing our response times in order to provide better service to all of our backers.”