Sohei Niikawa, known as the creator of the Disgaea JRPG series and former Nippon Ichi Software CEO of 13 years, recently talked to Dengeki Online about his activities as what he calls a “shared producer” in the industry.
Following his departure from Nippon Ichi Software in 2022, Niikawa founded his own company SuperNiche, where he produced the recently released musical 3D action JRPG Etrange Overlord. Aside from his game development work, Niikawa has also been active as a novelist under the pseudonym Roman Kitayama for quite some time now (which, incidentally, he only recently officially confirmed was his own, though fans had been suspicious for a while).
But apparently, Niikawa has been even busier than we thought. He tells Dengeki Online that since going independent, he’s been working as a “shared producer” in the game and related industries, taking on work for an average rate of “around what a freshly graduated new hire would make as a starting salary.”
This involves not only consultancy work like advising companies on improving performance and making organizational reforms, but also getting directly involved in projects in development (thus the “shared producer” description).
As for why he does this for such a cheap price, Niikawa says he “likes being in the trenches” and helping carry projects until they come together, so he wanted companies to be comfortable with using his services. His solution was to offer himself for the same price it would cost a company to hire an inexperienced entry-level worker, reducing the financial burden.
“I present the idea that people who see value in me as an individual can take the amount of my time they need, at whatever timing they want, and ‘share’ and make use of it,” he notes. Niikawa is engaged with at least nine companies at the moment as a consultant or external producer, but he says he’s able to juggle the work with his own creative projects just fine, or rather, he even finds enjoyment in handling multiple projects for multiple parties at once.
As Dengeki Online reveals, as of March 2026, Niikawa is providing business support for quite a large number of companies, including Nihon Falcom, G-MODE, CCMC, Game On, UUUM, Clover Labo, and others.
SuperNiche’s Etrange Overlord is available for PC (Steam), Nintendo Switch and PS5/Ps4.
