Koei Tecmo: Nioh’s opened a brand new audience for us

The Japanese publisher of recently-released action RPG title Nioh says the game has helped expand its audience.

Speaking to MCV, the firm’s president Hisashi Koinuma said that while the publisher takes pride in its more traditional Japanese line-up, which includes the likes of the Warriors series and Nobunaga’s Ambition, its more Western-focused releases such as Attack on Titan and Nioh have brought in a new segment of gamers.

Nioh was published by Koei Tecmo in Japan, and was developed by its infamous Team Ninja development studio. In all other territories, the release was handled by Sony Interactive Entertainment. The game opened to strong reviews, standing at 87 on Metacritic, and debuted at No.2 in the UK charts.

We are very happy with the global success of Nioh,” Koinuma told MCV. This game has been long in development and has been created with all the creative force of our company behind it. The positive reviews and strong performance has truly been a wonderful validation of our efforts so far, as has the overwhelming reception from the players themselves.

At Koei Tecmo we have always taken pride in the historical elements and Japanese character of our IP line up, something that has been evident in previous releases like Ninja Gaiden, Nobunaga’s Ambition, and our Warriors franchise. With Nioh, we have worked tirelessly to bring the essence and the spirit of that trademark direction into a new and challenging action RPG.

With the invaluable help of Sony Interactive Entertainment, we released two early demos, Alpha and Beta, and we were able to give players all over the world a teaser of what we were planning for them while simultaneously being open to their feedback.

As a result we believe we were able to adapt to their expectations and reach out to a brand new audience that hadn’t played our games in the past. In that, Nioh has taught us a lot of valuable lessons and has definitely helped open up an entirely new audience for us.

Nioh’s success, as well as the recent western success of titles like Attack on Titan: Wings of Freedom and Dead or Alive, is proof that if we follow the right approach and listen to the needs of the players they will embrace our titles and help our company grow further.”