One of the biggest video game news stories of 2020 was Microsoft’s acquisition of ZeniMax Media. This massive acquisition will see Microsoft not only gain ZeniMax Media and its big studios like Bethesda, but it will also give the company control over some of the industry’s biggest franchises, like Doom, Fallout, The Elder Scrolls, and Wolfenstein, among others.
Microsoft’s acquisition of ZeniMax Media has yet to go through, but it’s expected to happen soon. In the meantime, reliable sources have suggested that Microsoft has another Bethesda-level acquisition planned for this year, though it remains to be seen what exactly that acquisition may be.
While there are many different companies Microsoft may consider acquiring to help strengthen its Xbox brand, one studio it may want to consider is Koei Tecmo, and there are a few different reasons why that is.
Koei Tecmo studio Team Ninja has long had an association with the Xbox brand, and has helped develop a number of Xbox exclusive games for the publisher. This includes a number of games in the Dead or Alive fighting game series as well as its spinoffs, and many of the Ninja Gaiden reboot games have been timed-Xbox exclusives before coming to other platforms. More recent years have seen Team Ninja instead develop games exclusively for the Nintendo Switch and PlayStation consoles, but it still has more exclusives on Xbox than any other platform.
If Xbox were to acquire Koei Tecmo, it would bring Team Ninja under its umbrella, and that would be a huge “get” for the company, for sure. This would in turn give Xbox control of the Dead or Alive and Ninja Gaiden franchises, not to mention the popular Nioh games, which have yet to release on any Xbox platform. Similarly to how Xbox’s acquisition of ZeniMax Media was mainly notable for including ZeniMax subsidiary Bethesda, acquiring Koei Tecmo would be notable for including Team Ninja, its talent, and the IP associated with the studio.
One of the main reasons why Xbox would acquire any given studio is to secure its IP for Xbox consoles. Xbox has openly released some of its first-party games on other platforms and will likely continue doing so with some of its future acquisitions, but it’s been said that these games will either be on Xbox first, or the Xbox versions will be superior. A Koei Tecmo acquisition could secure many more high profile IP for the Xbox brand, including some IP that has long been associated with Xbox anyway.
This includes IP like the aforementioned Dead or Alive and Ninja Gaiden games. As previously mentioned, numerous Dead or Alive fighting games have been Xbox exclusives, and it’s just recently that the games have been making their way to other platforms as well. The Ninja Gaiden games, meanwhile, have often released on Xbox first, only to come to other consoles a bit later on down the road.
Another big IP that Xbox could obtain through a Koei Tecmo acquisition is Dynasty Warriors. The musou action games have a dedicated fanbase that has convinced Koei Tecmo to release new Dynasty Warriors games on a regular basis. Plus, Dynasty Warriors developer Omega Force could be a huge boon for Xbox as well, with the studio putting out higher-rated games on a more consistent basis in recent years.
Xbox has struggled to break into the Japanese gaming market for years, but it’s not for lack of trying. While the original Xbox didn’t have a big presence in Japan, Microsoft went big in the region with the Xbox 360, securing exclusive deals for major games aimed at Japanese audiences, like Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey. Despite the critical-acclaim some of these Japan-focused games earned, they didn’t really help Microsoft or Xbox break into the Japanese gaming market like they’d hope, and to this day, it’s still dominated by Sony and Nintendo.
However, there are rumors that Xbox has been talking to Japanese companies as part of a renewed effort to grow its brand in the region. Acquiring a major Japanese company like Koei Tecmo could grow Xbox’s Japanese audience overnight, and give it a much larger foothold in the region. There are other Japanese companies that Xbox could acquire instead, but it seems Koei Tecmo would give Microsoft the biggest bang for its buck.
Recently, Ninja Gaiden reboot director Tomonobu Itagaki created a new studio called Itagaki Games. Not only that, but Itagaki has expressed a desire to once again work with Microsoft, which would make sense, as Itagaki played a key role in developing many of Team Ninja’s Xbox-exclusive games in the past.
Itagaki’s track record speaks for itself, having directed the Xbox 360 launch title Dead or Alive 4 as well as the Ninja Gaiden reboot and 2008’s Ninja Gaiden 2. Itagaki most recently served as an advisor for Samurai Jack: Battle Through Time, which earned somewhat positive reviews, but the last game he directed was the critically-panned Devil’s Third. While Devil’s Third wasn’t well-received, the vast majority of Itagaki’s work has earned critical acclaim, and it’s quite likely that he would be a strong asset for Xbox growing its brand in Japan.
If Xbox were to acquire Koei Tecmo, it would get control of the Ninja Gaiden IP, which could theoretically be lent to Itagaki Games. Team Ninja is not working on a new Ninja Gaiden game, but the IP has been dormant for so long that it would be a shame to keep it lying.
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