Toei Company, the Japanese entertainment giant behind hit anime, TV series, movies, and more, has announced it's creating its own gaming offshoot, known as Toei Games. This new publishing label will primarily be concerned with creating games for PC via Steam this year, but there are plans to expand with Xbox, PlayStation, and Switch titles too.
"Our goal is to create a new IP that will captivate the world, starting with games," reads the statement on Toei's press release announcing the creation of Toei Games (translation via Gematsu). The first game coming from Toei Games is going to be revealed very soon, coming our way on the 24th of April, AKA this Friday.
It's interesting to note how Toei wants to use this opportunity to establish new IP. Considering the wealth of Japanese media at its disposal, you might think it would just create some hit games based on that. "The initial lineup of titles, which will be announced at a later date, will not be games using Toei's existing IPs, but rather completely new game titles created by talented creators from Japan and abroad," the press release states.
"Games are an extremely global form of entertainment that continues to spread beyond language and national borders. Our group's medium- to long-term vision, "TOEI NEW WAVE 2033," aims to deliver the "stories" created by Toei to the entire world, and we believe that our challenge in the game business, with the global market as our main battleground, is the embodiment of that vision, Toei Games aims to create entirely new IPs from scratch, rather than simply utilizing existing IPs. We will leverage the technology and expertise we have cultivated through video production into our new game business, delivering Toei's unique entertainment experience to players around the world." said Toei's President and CEO Fumio Yoshimura.