Koei Tecmo president and CEO Hisashi Koinuma (who took over from founder Yoichi Erikawa last year), recently spoke to Famitsu about the company’s significant upsizing in in the past few years.
Aiming to increase its number of development lines and broaden its release lineup, Koei Tecmo expanded its workforce from 2,500 to 2,850 people between 2024 and 2025. This year, it has welcomed another 193 new hires domestically, reaching over 3,000 employees.
Back in 2024, Koei Tecmo announced a target of growing to a “workforce of 5,000” as part of its mid-term strategy, and according to Koinuma, the company remains committed to this even now, with hiring planned to continue at a steady pace alongside internal training meant to cultivate talent.
Currently, game development at Koei Tecmo operates through six distinct brands (most notably Team NINJA, Omega Force and Gust), plus one studio (the recently launched AAA Studio). The company is looking to establish an infrastructure where each of these divisions can produce a steady stream of new releases. Additionally, Koinuma says he is interested in launching new brands that would allow the company to try different things with its games (given that existing brands already have loyal fanbases who expect specific IPs and genres from them).
While Koinuma says the direction of the potential future brand is still a secret, he asks fans to look forward to future developments.
Another noteworthy point is Koei Tecmo’s move to handle global publishing of its games in-house as much as possible. According to Koinuma, this is what led the company to self-publish Nioh 3, whose predecessors were both published through partnership with Sony. This brought clear advantages like the possibility to release simultaneously on PC, with the game becoming the fastest-selling entry in the series. While there are bound to be some exceptions and situation where partnerships are more beneficial, Koinuma thinks that in principle, Koei Tecmo needs to build a structure where it “can handle everything on its own.”
