It’s just been announced that Koei Tecmo is co-developing Fire Emblem: Three Houses, working with Intelligent Systems and Nintendo on the upcoming Switch game. Fire Emblem: Three Houses will be out July 26.
Originally from Texas, Ashcraft has called Osaka home since 2001. He has authored six books, including most recently, The Japanese Sake Bible.
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DISCUSSION
I don’t understand how this works. Nintendo has been doing this thing where external teams are doing heavy lifting on their first party games. Namco Bandai makes Smash, Koei Techmo makes Fire Emblem. How is this a good value for these other companies? Are they getting a cut of the profits? I don't understand the business at all. Why would Japan's top publishers agree to stand in as Nintendo's labor for major releases?