Koei Tecmo President Hisashi Koinuma recently talked about how the global release of Square Enix’s Dragon Quest of the Stars is being managed by the former’s Midas brand, with its base of operations located in Singapore. [Thanks, Famitsu App!]
A cooperative project between Square Enix and Koei Tecmo is not unheard of, as they have worked together many times before. Koei Tecmo has been involved in the development of Dissidia Final Fantasy NT, Dragon Quest Builders 2, the Dragon Quest Heroes series, and the mobile game Dissidia Final Fantasy: Opera Omnia.
Accompanied by Koei Tecmo Midas’ 1st section head Naohito Kano, Koinuma revealed how the new sixth brand—-established recently in April 2017—-has undergone a massive change since its inception. It was originally comprised of few young members with outsourcing-focused developments and an aim to produce new mobile game IPs that did not rely on the company’s existing brand IPs.
Koei Tecmo Midas announced two mobile game apps codenamed Project Code: F and Project Code: Puck at Tokyo Game Show 2017. Both games were originally slated for release in 2018, but neither of them showed up that year. This interview confirmed that the development for both projects ceased with very little chance of restarting, because mobile app releases have a limited marketability window based on trends at the time.
Koinuma took over the Midas brand head position in August 2018 and re-organized it so that the team is now comprised of around 30-40 software developers with a mix of young and experienced members. He also changed the brand’s development policy to become more like a “Jackof-all-trades” that can handle things other brands in the company may not be able to do, including developing mobile versions of their IPs.
The reborn Koei Tecmo Midas brand team currently has multiple development lines, and Koinuma hopes it can announce a new title within this fiscal year and release at least one title per fiscal year. For now, the brand wants to focus on producing mobile games for the Japanese domestic market, although it is also open to expanding to console games and international releases in the future.
The interview also revealed that the recent port of Monster Rancher, for the Nintendo Switch and mobile devices, was done by a division in Koei Tecmo known as the Portal Service department. The ports performed even better than what the company expected, which is why the team received a green light to port Monster Rancher 2 to the same platforms. Koinuma hopes that Midas will be able to take up more porting jobs like this.
Koinuma also confirmed that in addition to Dragon Quest of the Stars, the Singapore studio is also handling the international versions of Dissidia Final Fantasy: Opera Omnia and Dead or Alive Xtreme Venus Vacation. He is planning to have Koei Tecmo Singapore manage social games with Southeast Asia as the main target.
Dragon Quest of the Stars is available on iOS and Android devices worldwide.
