Koei Tecmo plans to go from 2,500 to 5,000 employees and lean further into AAA games, lowering expectations of mobile market 

Following the publication of their earnings for the first half of the fiscal year, Koei Tecmo held a shareholders Q&A briefing where they gave some insights into their long-term development policy and expectations of the video game market. 

Koei Tecmo has recently formed a new in-house AAA studio, and has already mentioned plans to make “yearly releases of major titles” a priority. According to their explanation to shareholders, this is because the company “expects the console and PC game market to grow” due to new hardware releases, as well as mobile gamers transitioning to PC and console games (an observation made based on the success of recent Chinese and Korean titles). 

On the other hand, Koei Tecmo’s representatives noted that the mobile game market is already mature, and that “significant growth is unlikely to be seen.” In response to these market conditions, the company plans to establish a development framework that will allow them to “steadily produce AAA titles.” To this end, Koei Tecmo even intends to double their scale, going from 2,500 to 5,000 employees in the long run. 

Koei Tecmo has the major release of Dynasty Warriors: Origins ahead, as well as mid-range titles like Fairy Tail 2 and Atelier Yumia. In addition, their AAA studio is currently working on an unannounced new title.