Koei Tecmo Holdings Co. Ltd. – A holding company by the merger of Japanese video game developers an

Click Entertainment is a distributor and wholesale supplier of Koei Tecmo Holdings Co. Ltd. video game products. 

Koei Tecmo Holdings Co., Ltd. is a holding coming by the merger of Japanese video game developers and publishers Koei and Tecmo, created in 2009. The company combined are responsible for such notable video game series as Dead or Alive, Dynasty Warriors, Fatal Frame and Monster Rancher, to name a few.

Company History:

Tecmo, Inc. (formerly known as Tehkan Ltd.), was founded by Yoshihito Kakihara on 31 July 1967, as a cleaning equipment supplier. In 1969 they went on to sell amusement equipment and, by the March of 1981, Tehkan released in Japan it’s first arcade video game entitled Pleiads.

Koei Co., Ltd. was founded in July 1978 by Keiko Erikawa and Yoichi Erikawa. Yoichi was a student at Keio University and decided to pursue his interest in programming, as his family’s rural business failed. The company’s name is a spoonerism of the university’s. The company mainly focused on made-to-order business software and personal computer sales, but in 1981 it released Nobunaga’s Ambition, which is a historical strategy game set during the Sengoku period of Japanese history and went on to win numerous awards.

Square Enix announced a friendly takeover of Tecmo, on 28 August 2008, by purchasing shares at a 30 percent premium. A board meeting was held by President and COO of Koei, Kenji Matsubara, on 1 September to discuss a possible merge with Tecmo after hearing the news about Square Enix. On 4 September, Tecmo declined Square Enix’s proposal and announced plans to merge with Koei later that same day.

On February 8, 2011, Koei Tecmo announced that the individual developers Tecmo and Koei would be merged into Tecmo Koei Games, though the company will continue to develop under the Tecmo and Koei brands. July 2014 then saw the company name change to Koei Tecmo.

Acquisitions and Partnerships:

Team Ninja (officially Team NINJA) is a video game development studio of Tecmo founded in 1995. It was formerly led by Tomonobu Itagaki and is best known for the Dead or Alive and Ninja Gaiden series.

Omega Force (ω-Force) is a video game developer working for Tecmo Koei that is most well known for its Dynasty Warriors series for the PlayStation Portable, PlayStation Vita, Nintendo 3DS, Nintendo DS, Game Boy Advance, PC, Xbox 360, PlayStation, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3 and Wii. They also developed other Warriors/Musou games such as Samurai Warriors, Warriors Orochi, Fist of the North Star: Ken’s Rage, One Piece: Pirate Warriors, Hyrule Warriors, and Dragon Quest Heroes: Yamiryuu to Sekai Ki no Shiro. Outside of the Warriors games, they have worked on such games as DestregaWinBack, Bladestorm: The Hundred Years’ War, Fatal Inertia (as a producer), Saihai no Yukue, Trinity: Souls of Zill O’ll, and Toukiden.

Team Tachyon is a Japanese video game development department of Tecmo Koei founded in 2007. Similar to Team Ninja, the group was formed to develop high-profile games, some of which relate to Tecmo Koei’s classic franchises. The company says that they chose the name, “Team Tachyon”, because a tachyon is a particle that exceeds the speed of light. Key members include Tecmo producers Keisuke Kikuchi (RygarFatal Frame) and Kohei Shibata.

Ruby Party specializes in games labeled as Neoromance: GxB dating sims, usually with extra side-quests. Out of the three Neoromance series, the best known is Angelique, which has been in production since 1994. Harukanaru Toki no Naka de is a newer Neoromance hit, with many sequels and an anime TV series based on it. The newest game in the series, Kin’iro no Corda, is gaining popularity partially because the manga series it was based on has been recently licensed by Viz for English language publishing, and an anime TV series based on it began airing in October 2006. A sequel was also released on the PlayStation 2 in March 2007.