As Koei-Tecmo CEO and co-founder Yoichi Erikawa is due to step down this April, the company has announced Hisashi Koinuma as his successor.
Koinuma will be officially taking the position of CEO on the 1st of April 2024. He previously held the position of chief operating officer, as well as president and general manager of Koei Tecmo’s entertainment division.
“We have been gradually preparing for the transition to the next generation of management through discussions in the Nomination and Compensation Committee,” says Koei-Tecmo in a recent report regarding the change in management. “To achieve further growth and profitability for our group, we have decided to implement a new management structure starting from the fiscal year 2025.”
As general manager, Koinuma has further worked as a producer for several games published by the company, most notably for several crossovers with their popular Warriors titles such as Hyrule Warriors, a crossover with Nintendo’s Legend of Zelda franchise, as well as Dynasty Warriors: Gundam, One Piece Pirate Warriors, and Berserk and the Band of the Hawk.
Koei-Tecmo is a well-known Japanese publisher, responsible for popular IPs including Dynasty Warriors, Ninja Gaiden and more recently the Nioh series. This year, they have already released Dynasty Warriors Origins to critical and financial success, recently stating that the game has sold over one million units.
Other games they will launch this year include Ninja Gaiden 4, the first mainline game in the series since Ninja Gaiden 3 Razor’s Edge released in 2013. The game is being made in partnership with Platinum Games, a developer well-known for action titles like Bayonetta, Mad World and Nier Automata. They will also be publishing Atelier Yumia: The Alchemist of Memories & the Envisioned Land, the latest JRPG in their popular Atelier series which has become increasingly more popular in recent years.
Koei-Tecmo was created in 2009 as part of a merger between Japanese game developers Koei and Tecmo. Yoichi Erikawa, along with his wife Keiko Erikawa, founded Koei in 1978. Both of them still work at the company, with Yoichi changing positions from CEO to Representative Director and Chairman. Keiko, who currently holds the Representative Director and Chairman role, will also be moving to the newly created position of Director and Chairman Emeritus.
With multiple popular new games coming up, hopefully, Koinuma will be able to lead Koei-Tecmo into a bright new future.
Words by Alex Daud Briggs
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