{"id":40298,"date":"2024-11-21T17:09:15","date_gmt":"2024-11-21T08:09:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=40298"},"modified":"2024-11-21T17:11:45","modified_gmt":"2024-11-21T08:11:45","slug":"should-executives-be-game-producers-koei-tecmos-founder-kou-shibusawa-says-yes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/should-executives-be-game-producers-koei-tecmos-founder-kou-shibusawa-says-yes\/","title":{"rendered":"Should executives be game producers? Koei Tecmo\u2019s founder Kou Shibusawa says yes\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Koei Tecmo founder and CEO Yoichi Erikawa, also known by his game creator pseudonym Kou Shibusawa, recently held a lecture at G-Star 2024<\/a>, Korea’s largest video game convention. As reported by 4Gamer<\/a>, Erikawa shared insights into his philosophy of game development and corporate management, including the reason why he and each of the company\u2019s executives double as game producers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Erikawa founded Koei with his wife in 1978, after the family textile business he was supposed to inherit went bankrupt. Doing a complete one-eighty to programming, he created Koei\u2019s early breakthrough hits, including Nobunaga\u2019s Ambition and Romance of the Three Kingdoms. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Romance<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In his recent lecture, Erikawa says that his varied experience as a businessman \u2013 from managing finances, payrolls and inventory to looking for new staff, became his foundation for designing innovative gameplay. For example, going from battle-only gameplay to introducing new simulator-like mechanics in Romance of the Three Kingdoms. For Erikawa, good games are born from personal experience, both private and professional.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cExecutives should be producers,\u201d Erikawa says during his presentation. Drawing parallels to the film industry, he notes that producers must be able to look at a script and gauge its budget, audience and long-term profitability. Producers and company executives alike, he says, have to be attuned to three core pillars of production \u2013 meeting deadlines, sticking to budgets and maintaining quality. \u201cFor this reason, all of Koei Tecmo Games’ executives are producers.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Wo-Long<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

At the same time, it feels important to note here that Erikawa himself, although a seasoned businessman, is hardly what many of us imagine when we hear the word \u201ccorporate executive.\u201d Not only does he have 44 years of hands-on experience making games, but he is a through and through gamer. He plays video games basically every other waking moment, getting up at 5AM every day to play mobile titles like Fate Grand Order and NIKKE, then playing in-development games at the office, and finally coming back home to hit console titles like Metaphor: ReFantazio and Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. He calls this \u201cdoing what you love with all your might,\u201d so it\u2019s safe to say his ideal of an executive-game producer comes with the prerequisite of being crazy about video games. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Dead<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In addition, Erikawa emphasizes the human side of things, describing a producer as someone who can empathize with their development team\u2019s highs as well as their lows. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Koei Tecmo founder and CEO Yoichi Erikawa (Kou Shibusawa) shared insights into his philosophy of game development and corporate management.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":40300,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40298","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"\nShould executives be game producers? Koei Tecmo\u2019s founder Kou Shibusawa says yes\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Koei Tecmo founder and CEO Yoichi Erikawa (Kou Shibusawa) shared insights into his philosophy of game development and corporate management.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/should-executives-be-game-producers-koei-tecmos-founder-kou-shibusawa-says-yes\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Should executives be game producers? 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Koei Tecmo\u2019s founder Kou Shibusawa says yes\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST","description":"Koei Tecmo founder and CEO Yoichi Erikawa (Kou Shibusawa) shared insights into his philosophy of game development and corporate management.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/should-executives-be-game-producers-koei-tecmos-founder-kou-shibusawa-says-yes\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Should executives be game producers? Koei Tecmo\u2019s founder Kou Shibusawa says yes\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST","og_description":"Koei Tecmo founder and CEO Yoichi Erikawa (Kou Shibusawa) shared insights into his philosophy of game development and corporate management.","og_url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/should-executives-be-game-producers-koei-tecmos-founder-kou-shibusawa-says-yes\/","og_site_name":"AUTOMATON WEST","article_published_time":"2024-11-21T08:09:15+00:00","article_modified_time":"2024-11-21T08:11:45+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1510,"height":842,"url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/20241121-40298.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Amber V","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@AUTOMATON_ENG","twitter_site":"@AUTOMATON_ENG","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Amber V","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/should-executives-be-game-producers-koei-tecmos-founder-kou-shibusawa-says-yes\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/should-executives-be-game-producers-koei-tecmos-founder-kou-shibusawa-says-yes\/"},"author":{"name":"Amber V","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/fdc6517a00e35b6917ffdb02e8b574d9"},"headline":"Should executives be game producers? 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