Tecmo, Koei in merger talks

Personally, I don't like the idea of any company's preforming a merger. But I do think that its a much better move in this case then to sell out to Square-Enix. Square has enough of their own series that they've been neglecting for quite some time. Thank god that they've finally decided to re-port Chrono Trigger.

I haven't liked SE since they decided not to release Front Mission 5 to North America. Nice to see SE get slapped up the head.

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Turning down Square Enix (Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts, Dragon Quest, The World Ends With You) for Koei (Dynasty Warriors, Samurai Warriors, Three Kingdoms?) Doesn't sound like great decision making there.

Think dynasty warriors with gore, blood and gibbing, and limb/head decaptations on each of your 1000 enemies, and the bodies don't dissappear when defeated. Honestly the only fun dynasty warrior was dw3 maybe this is just wht they needed.

Ninja Warriors?

i think it would be better this way. besides, i've been playing dynasty warriors for years and a tecmo version of dw character design sounds pretty good to me. dw6 character design was utter crap imo

Yeah, forget SE... let's merge with a company that releases crappy games instead!

I keep thinking that this will be the end for Tecmo if they merge with Koei but I think I'm just prejudiced since I really don't think Koei's games are great since they're all the same

Those two companies share the same sort of interest in games, brutally killing lots of enemies. Their partnering makes sense.

Well one of the main reasons I like SE's games are pretty clear; I don't like games I can beat in a sitting or two... Koei however has made many great games in the past. The Uncharted waters series, romance of the three kingdoms series (some of them still making it to NA), aerobiz, gemfire, to name a few. As a company they are almost as old as enix and square; and older then square enix. (if you want to look at it that way) However a lot of Koei games don't make it over to NA, and if they do; they are done rather poorly. (translation wise and sometimes strip things out) Maybe that will change if they merge.

Is Tecmo retarded!?At least with no Itagaki it is.

Doesn't sound like a bad merge to me. I would really look forward to the games they put out there.

But itadaki is gone.

I guess that bouncing boobs physics based RPG will have to wait.

SE woulda brotten more depth to tecmo's lagging story department and stuff...sadly tecmo is retarded. still good for SE, they shall continue with blockbuster titles while the tecmo slowly dies

i hope if they do merge they can come up with some more original titles...because right now it seems they only rely on 3 things in the console market: ninja, dynasty and big boobs. But maybe: ninja + dynasty + big boobs + colonel's secret recipe can become something very nice.

Just make me another Aerobiz!!!!

Admist all its troubles, Temco has the audacity to remain greedy. They rejected Square Enix and went with the smaller Koei so they can feed off of Koei's $$$ until Tecmo gets back on its feet and then either completely take over Koei or seperate back into its own company again. This plan would not be possible if they went with Square Enix. Either way, hopefully a change of staff will make Tecmo games finally be actual sequels instead of slightly-changing updates. I'm looking forward to Itegaki-less DOA, NG, and DOAX where there's at least a chance that they'll accept fan input.

Say goodbye to Tecmo! Merging with Koei will be the final nail in the coffin. Koei has limited imagination, and creativity. All they're games revolve around the same formula, and hardly ever any new depth added. How far can you take a game that has the same story every time?! Even wrestling games aren't that bad! I mean look at DW:Gundun! It felt similar to DW1 in a lot of ways! Bad idea Tecmo, don't go with Koei! Koei will go under soon most likely anyway.

Now i know why Itagaki left and tecmo is getting sued by its own employees. The president of tecmo sounds like a real d*****bag, turning down SE's offer for KOEI??? The people who only have 3 franchises they keep milking and haven't made a good game since dynasty warriors 2? Let's just break this down: Hmmmm, Legendary RPG developers with a penchant for high quality titles ooooor crappy company who churns out the same junk EVERY YEAR. My biggest question is: WHY? what's his problem with SE? and why the hell did he pick KOEI? "Through a merger, we expect we can grow further by respecting both companies' identities and having an environment in which employees can fully exhibit their skills" - right, because a dynasty warriors beach volleyball game is something i'm REALLY looking forward to. Or the next Rygar game to be nothing but fighting endless waves of lame enemies. Seriously, what does he mean by "exhibit their skills"? as far as i'm concerned the only thing Koei exhibits is it's awesome ability to SUCK and BLOW at the same time.

Personally I´d like the idea of Koei with Square Enix. If they'd be able to put the dynasty warriors story and characters in a kingdom hearts gameplay. That would be wonderful. And just think about an xl version of that game. Creating your own character and climbing up the ranks until you reach grand commander. That'd be the best game i'd ever have. But I think Koei and Tecmo wouldn't be a bad alliance. They could seriously create nice games. Maybe they should just keep their own franchises to themselves and join forces to create a new franchise that combines both Koei's great story lines and Tecmo's addictive gameplay.

Yes Pressurized blood in my Dynasty Warrior games now. Oh yes.

The last good game that Koei made was a Metal Gear Solid clone for N64 called "Winback." It wasn't great, but it was pretty fun at least. The sequel for PS2 was absolutely awful though, and all they've been making is sequels to Dynasty Warriors as of late. It amazes me that Koei's stock is higher priced than Tecmo's even though they are such an inferior company.

I'm glad Capcom is doing better than ever. THey really know how to make multiplatform games and maintain their licenses. Let's the Tecmo-Koei keeps their licenses intact. I don't want to see Ryu fighting 200 stupid foes in blank environments. No thanks.

I see this deal working a lot better than a tecmo/ SE merger. Tecmo and Koei have a similar line of titles and a similar fan base. Putting Tecmo and SE together would have been like trying to fit a square block into a round hole.

Honestly, the idea of merging different franchises from different companies is cheesy as hell to me and I'm glad Square got shut down. Koei has less franchises that people could think up ridiculous game "mash-ups" for. I'd rather not see Ninja Gaiden, Ryu, DOA, etc. whored out into every possible game for a quick buck.

In addition to what Killingcupid said, I want to add that Square Enix taking over Tecmo doesn't guarantee that we'll see more NG or DOA games. For example, look what happened to the Ogre Battle games after Square took over Quest.

You see. All the crap that people were saying about Capcom because they make too many ports of their games. Remember how many ports games like Street Fighter 2, SF@, RE2, RE3, etc... happened. That was all for a good reason. Capcom knows how to make money and manage their licenses. Now, Capcom and Konami,are the only long time big players that can still handle themselves as true single powerhouses. Best of all Capcom is making the best games in its history (IMO), and Konami has found new mega success with MGS4, which they really need to capitalize on. [OBS: Nintendo is a software and Hardware company, and out of their league, just like Sony.] When you make a great game, and you market it well, and support it, people are going to buy it. This is something that Japanese publishers/developers don't really grasp well, because they have some of the best licenses but they can't make great profits and be self sufficient. Just think of the portfolio of such companies and then wander why they had to merge: Sega, Square, and Namco. Remember how powerful they were in the 90s? It's because they were too worried about their fan base, and all this stupid console war BS, that only a very small-and-unfortunately-loud part of the industry cares about. Business-wise, people should get inspiration from EA, Activision, Capcom, Nintendo, Sony, MSFT, because they know how to capitalize on their licenses, and make them cult phenomenons, instead of "oh, no, we can't do that! our fans would hate us for that." For instance, SE not releasing FF13 in Japan for the X360 while doing so in the US & EU. That's just dumb. Konami could also be making a lot more money with MGS4, this could make their future brighter. I hope Tecmo-Koei merge like Namco Bandai did, by keeping their franchises intact.

Ninja Gaiden/DOA mindless button smash-a-thon anyone?

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I'm pretty happy about this...Koei needs a LOT of help in improving their DW games...heck...I prefer any DW game than DW6. DW6 was a complete disappointment, you couldn't even make a nice combo using a normal attack and a charge attack. The only game I find awesome in the Warriors series is Warriors Orochi...since you can change from 3 characters anytime you want and it doesn't get as boring as the other games...and it has all characters from DW and SW. The downside on this is...both companies make many games with horrible cameras...seriously...Ninja Gaiden II and practically every Warriors game has a horrible camera. Let's just hope we don't lose to good companies here. I like the Warriors series and the hot girls in DoA..^_^

If I was Tecmo, it would not be a merger with Square Enix, but rather a BUYOUT. There wont be a Square Enix Tecmo, instead they would be folded in Square. A potential merger with Koei would allow Tecmo to retain its individuality.

Wow - they smacked down Square! This is probably a better deal for them anyway.

Why would you turn down Square Enix, the larger more talented company, and then talk about merging with Koei(the smaller company that seems to only make Dynasty Warrior games? On a side note, facing hundreds of Dynasty Warrior enemies that are as difficult as Ninja gaiden enemies would be insanely difficult.

Koei sucks! Tecmo should have taken Square's offer, because it was probably better than they deserved. If the company who made NINJA GAIDEN thinks that it'd be a good idea to merge with the company that has been RE-RELEASING DYNASTY WARRIORS for the past 10 years, they deserve every hardship that comes their way from here on out.

koei and tecmo? that might not be bad.

So, to save their butts, Tecmo will merge to an crappy company like Koei? this can't be happening

Most realtime RPGs have combat that would be called terrible in any action game. I was hoping if Square bought Tecmo maybe some of the people who worked on Ninja Gaiden or Dead or Alive could walk over to the Square teams and say, "here's how you make combat thats not crap". And vice versa, Square could tell the Tecmo teams, "here's how you make a game that has a story." Koei and Tecmo... basically a crappy action game maker teaming up with a good action game maker. The math on that looks like the end result would be one huge mediocre action game maker.

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The merger between Square and Tecmo would have been way better as i would have liked to see what a ninja action style fighter would be like in the form of a RPG fantasy game!

So SE is still worth more than both of them combined. Koei or Temco never really put out many good games, and now they're just combining their crap factories. If i see a dynasty warriors-ninja gaiden crossover (or any of their IP's for that matter), I just might kill myself.

I love how the minute Itagaki leaves, every Japanese dev rushes in to pick up the pieces. I'm just waiting for Capcom, Namco-Bandai, and/or Konami to dive in for a shot as well. That said, any of those three would be WAY better than freaking Koei, who don't even deserve to still be an independent company themselves.

If they merge with Koei well thats the end of anything good from DoA and Ninja Gaiden.

I wasn't expecting this at all! Finally Dynasty Warriors & Samurai Warriors will get a much needed upgrade to the combat system! Thank God!

Aw, that would have been a good acquisition by square. oh wellz

How the hell do you turn away $200 million? Money aside, Square Enix is one of the most long-standing and well-respected companies in the gaming industry. Refusing Square Enix's generous offer in favor of a merger with Koei, Tecmo would only be shooting themselves in the foot. In addition, the absence of Itagaki, the driving force behind some of Tecmo's best-known games, including the DOA and Ninja Gaiden franchises, further casts doubt on the future of the company.

Maybe that will force tecmo to stop persecuting their employees

Dynasty Ninjas? you know what that sounds awesome

huh.. I thought this was for sure a done deal.