Tomy outlines video games plans

Japanese toy giant Tomy is looking to snatch market share from the biggest games suppliers in Europe – as it splashes the cash on its new standalone video games publishing business.

The age-old family company has revealed its full publishing strategy to MCV, speaking candidly about its ambitions to muscle in on the world’s most lucrative industry.

The firm – which already distributes its Naruto games in Europe through Nintendo – will release its first games under the Tomy label in the territory early next year.
But its plans don’t stop there. Tomy has exclusively told MCV that its ambitions in the sector include:

Raiding its 50-year IP catalogue to quickly help it dominate the family-friendly, casual marketplace;

Bringing boxed games to Xbox 360 and PS3, as well as Wii, DS and digital distribution;

Relying on its own Japanese development team to remain self-sufficient and maximise profit;

Creating must-have hardware accessories for Nintendo platforms.

We’ve tried to take products that do well as toys and take that into the gaming sphere, tapping into our 50 years of toy development,” Tomy Europe’s business development director Thomas Nagai told MCV.

In Europe specifically, we’re known as a toy manufacturer, so we’re really going to leverage our presence in the video games industry.

Our Japan HQ is investing more and more in new IP and video games. It is a natural step for Tomy in Europe to extend family-friendly toy properties onto the next generation of video game systems. We are one of the few companies who can do this.”

Tomy’s self-publishing initiative kicks off with Lovely Lisa for DS and Penny Racers Party: Turbo-Q Speedway for Wii early next year.

However, Tomy won’t be the only one to benefit from its wealth of IP.

The firm told MCV that, on certain future titles, it will outsource both development and distribution duties.

In 2005, Tomy merged with fellow Japanese toy firm Takara, which became known in the mid-’90s for porting SNK Neo Geo games such as Fatal Fury to Nintendo and Sega consoles.

Takara also owns the rights to toys such as Transformers and BeyBlade – which are both distributed internationally by Hasbro.