{"id":65342,"date":"2026-04-16T22:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=65342"},"modified":"2026-04-16T16:31:40","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T07:31:40","slug":"disgaea-series-creator-and-former-nis-ceo-lets-game-companies-hire-him-as-a-shared-producer-for-the-cost-of-a-new-graduates-salary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/disgaea-series-creator-and-former-nis-ceo-lets-game-companies-hire-him-as-a-shared-producer-for-the-cost-of-a-new-graduates-salary\/","title":{"rendered":"Disgaea\u00a0series creator\u00a0and former NIS\u00a0CEO\u00a0lets\u00a0game companies\u00a0hire him as a \u201cshared producer\u201d for the cost of a new graduate\u2019s\u00a0salary\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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<\/a> about his activities as what he calls a \u201cshared producer\u201d in the industry. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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<\/a>. 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<\/a>, though fans had been suspicious for a while). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But apparently, Niikawa has been even busier than we thought. He tells Dengeki Online that since going independent, he\u2019s been working as a \u201cshared producer\u201d in the game and related industries, taking on work for an average rate of \u201caround what a freshly graduated new hire would make as a starting salary.\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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 \u201cshared producer\u201d description). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Etrange Overlord<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

As for why he does this for such a cheap price, Niikawa says he \u201clikes being in the trenches\u201d 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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI 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 \u2018share\u2019 and make use of it,\u201d he notes. Niikawa is engaged with at least nine companies at the moment as a consultant or external producer, but he says he\u2019s 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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

SuperNiche\u2019s Etrange Overlord<\/a> is available for PC (Steam<\/a>), Nintendo Switch and PS5\/Ps4. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Related articles:<\/strong> Former Nippon Ichi Software president says the \u201csalaryman-ification\u201d of Japan\u2019s game industry is why there are fewer \u201cindividual creators\u201d like Hideo Kojima and Suda51<\/strong><\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In between of developing games at his new company SuperNiche, Sohei\u00a0Niikawa has been active as a “shared” producer in the industry for dirt cheap.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":65355,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-65342","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"\nDisgaea\u00a0series creator\u00a0and former NIS\u00a0CEO\u00a0lets\u00a0game companies\u00a0hire him as a \u201cshared producer\u201d for the cost of a new graduate\u2019s\u00a0salary\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In between of developing games at his new company SuperNiche, Sohei\u00a0Niikawa has been active as a "shared" producer in the industry for dirt cheap.\" \/>\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\/disgaea-series-creator-and-former-nis-ceo-lets-game-companies-hire-him-as-a-shared-producer-for-the-cost-of-a-new-graduates-salary\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Disgaea\u00a0series creator\u00a0and former NIS\u00a0CEO\u00a0lets\u00a0game companies\u00a0hire him as a \u201cshared producer\u201d for the cost of a new graduate\u2019s\u00a0salary\u00a0 - 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