Koei Tecmo CEO says it grew from 2,500 staff to over 3,000 in two years, is aiming for 5,000
The company has also built new employee dorms and company housing for staff
The president and CEO of Koei Tecmo has detailed the company’s plans for continued growth.
In a new interview with Famitsu (via Automaton), Hisashi Koinuma was asked about his previously declared aim to become the world’s number 1 digital entertainment company.
Koinuma explained that the aim was have the highest operating profit in the games industry – with the first plan being to reach the top 10 by 2035 – which can only be achieved when customers buy a lot of games.
When asked how Koei Tecmo planned to release games frequently enough to achieve this, Koinuma replied that the company’s workforce had grown over the past two years, and the plan was to grow it even further.
In 2024, Koei Tecmo told shareholders that it had around 2,500 staff and wanted to double this in the future. According to Koinuma, the number has now passed 3,000.
“We are currently expanding our workforce to increase the number of development lines,” he explained (via machine translation). “Last year, our groupwide headcount grew to just over 2,850 people, and this year – with 193 new graduates joining us in Japan alone – our total headcount has reached approximately 3,000.
“Looking ahead, we hope to continue expanding steadily toward a workforce of 5,000. At the same time, we are working to improve the quality of our workforce through in-house training. We currently have six brands and one studio, and are establishing a system that lets us consistently release new titles from each of them.”
The ‘brands’ Koinuma referred to are Omega Force (which works on the Dynasty Warriors series), Team Ninja (Ninja Gaiden and Dead or Alive), Gust (Atelier), Kou Shibusawa (Nobunaga’s Ambition), Midas (smartphone titles) and Ruby Party (visual novels), while the studio is AAA Games Studio, which was founded in 2024 and recently released Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment.
“We originally started the branding system because we wanted to maintain and further develop the unique characteristics and styles of each team,” Koinuma explained. “If we want to create a game that doesn’t fit into those characteristics, we want to launch it as a new brand. AAA Studios is not a brand at this stage, but if we can grow by creating solid IPs, we hope to brand it in the future and expand it in various directions.”
When asked if any Koei Tecmo staff plan to create a new brand, Koinuma laughed and said this was a secret, adding: “But of course, there are staff members who want to try new things. If there is a need for a platform for that, I think creating a new brand will make it easier for them to take on challenges, so please look forward to future developments.”
Koinuma was also asked if the company was planning to acquire new office space, given the planned growth from 3,000 to 5,000 staff.
“Last year we acquired Yokohama Symphostage, and it has been operational since April of this year,” he replied We plan to eventually accommodate around 900 people there, so I think the increased personnel will be moved there.”
Noting that this still wouldn’t be enough space, he added: ” We also have an office in Kyoto, but that’s actually getting full as well. We’re thinking of having our real estate division look into office plans. I know that if the number of employees continues to increase at this rate, we’ll run out of space, so we need to think about it a bit more.
“In addition, we have also built new employee dormitories and company housing. We continue to improve not only the development environment for our employees but also their living environment.”
