I like small companies to remain independent. It keeps competition up, and thus keeps the consumer happy. We all know what happens when monopolies move in.

Acebuckeye13

Way too many FF7 fanboys in here that need to die. Please die soon.

Revenge_of_Nekojin

I hope Tecmo just says "we said no." I don't see any obligation they might have to provide Square-Enix with an answer.

Mit

A bunch of guys should cosplay as Square Enix characters and go beat up Tecmo employees. That'll show'em!

Buttah

@JorgieX: heheh I don't see what I'd be upset about. Kudos to Tecmo I say.

@DaveKap: @pylon_trooper: XD WINNARS!

Bardiel18

I kind of wanted to see a Ninja Gaiden RPG =3

djricekcn

@JorgieX: The thing is that if the smaller company is publicly traded, the big company doesn't necessarily have to be nice about the situation. It's just likely to be less costly that way.

Spartan1308™

the funny thing is that big companies go around thinking that they have every right to take over smaller companies. So when the little guy say no thank you in a kind way the big company says that the smaller company has to explain itself on to why they said no. Goodness I would be upset if I were Tecmo.

JorgieX

Oh shi

Bernard McGraw

SE will fire bahamut's "Megaflare" at Tecmo.

squall3031

Uh, if I was Tecmo, I'd say, "I don't need to explain shit to you."

dunetiger reads kotaku, seems pleased

Hahahaha that letter reads like a love note in 2nd grade.

HI SALLY

I LIKE YOU!
DO YOU LIKE ME?
PLEASE CIRCLE ONE AND GIVE BACK TO ME DURING LUNCH

YES NO

Poor Squeen, gonna have their hearts broken because Tecmo already likes Koei better.

DaveKap

the hell does he think he is...they dont have to give you explanations at all.

Captain Fury

Oh shi- don't make them get out their Espers.

ittekimasu

On one hand, I'd like to see a merger, simply due to the possibilities of titles in the future.

However, the Koei/Tecmo merger is sufficient.

Aerobiz Supersonic - Tits Edition.

pylon_trooper

@Ronin_Okami: Hilarious! XD

Honestly, I don't see how this is a good move for Tecmo business wise. Unless it was a move made to keep the dev. teams from jumping ship.

armless-phelan

So Tecmo has to choose between fashion models with weapons and more ninja... yeah thats not too hard is it?

My main guess is that Tecmo doesn want to be come a RPG company.

SaanZ

@Maverickly: Sakaguchi made Blue Dragon after leaving SE. I see how people would be confused about this, but I think the issue might be one of control.

SE would swallow Tecmo, clean out the unnecessary middle management and take control of what gets published and what doesn't. This just happened w/Activision's merger. They dumped several Sierra/Vivendi titles and cut the workforce. Tecmo management would likely have more control if they merged w/Koei or another smaller company.

Spartan1308™

@Maverickly: Blue Dragon is not a SE game. It's made by Mistwalker which is consisting of a bunch of ex-SE employees.

Squishy3

If Tecmo wants a partner with strong sales in Asia as they previously stated, I still dont get why they opted out of Sqeenix.
Are Tecmo shareholders being shafted again by evil managers?

sander_dutch

and "shinra" begins to make its move...^_^

Ronin_Okami

@TheJinManCan: pfft... they've moved onto the obsessive stalker girlfriend phase already.

"WHY?! WHY?!! WHYYYY????!!!"

Bardiel18

Why do Japanese company takeovers, even the friendly ones, always sounds like some people will have to commit Seppuku? Always so hostile... :P

Candlejack

This is turning into one big soap opera. Can't wait to see the next episode.

XeroKool

Square needs to talk with EA on how to take over a company... They're doing it WRONG!

omses

They just want to know why they're rejected.

Their answer will thusly be "can't we stay friends?"

Rejection is hard.

TheJinManCan

That's right Tecmo, fight the power.

Deft_One

Monster Rancher please? I want blu-ray monsters

Schoolimangooli's backpack turns into a ham sandwich!

Dynasty Warriors vs. Final Fantasy/ KH/ Blue Dragon etc?

Smart move, if you hate money.

But I mildly see their reasoning, they don't want to be at the tail of Sqeenix success.

Maverickly

Up early!

Is weird. Like they have some better plan...because hey, KOEI makes really awesome games. =\

Jamez

@Ryodestined: As a Koei fan I'd say this is quite a victory. I love the Warriors series, but I hate the fact that Koei seems to be getting lazier and lazier with each one they come out with. I think Tecmo might give them the push to add more to each game they produce, and possibly increase the overall quality of the series. Hell, people might even start to consider the series to be good. Who knows.

As for Tecmo, I think they would completely lose their uh...individuality...if Squeenix were to take them over.

Furious_Liver

Wow. This is just sad.

hagridore

The letter's basically: "What's he got that I haven't got??!"

m0re

@maraxusofk: *slap* FF8 was good, but Squall was far too emo. and yes, Giant Robots kick ass, maybe that's it? KOEI does have DW:Gundam.

jackfrost132

Umm.. I think the idea behind asking isn't to nag so much as to make a better offer than KOEI.

jackfrost132

@Revenge_of_Nekojin:

for real. FF7 is highly overrated. xenogears and ff8 were both vastly better (xenogear's story and FKING ROBOTS) and ff8's everything

maraxusofk

I don't really know how to feel. I know I can't name more than one Koei series, but I guess I can understand that Tecmo wants to try and grow up on its own instead of becoming apart of an existing giant.

Ryodestined

Hell yes. Keep the sappy crap out of my Ninja Gaiden.

Furious_Liver

Yoichi Wada is Imperial Hot!!!!:P

badmoogle

BREAKING NEWS:
Koei to produce game not belonging to the Warriors franchise

After announcing a merger with Tecmo earlier today, Tecmo officials released a separate press statement aimed at concerned parents. All the millions of kids that have been buying Koei games for all their live will receive a special warning ahead of the game to prepare them to the vastly different gameplay.

Additional every future Tecmo game will contain a special relief mode, which will contain parts of Dynasty Warriors 1. On the other hand Koei will allow Tecmo fans easy access to their games by releasing Tecmo branded Warrior spin-offs in 2009....

develin

@Furious_Liver: Oh, yeah.. what you said :P

Polite Society

Tecmo + Koei is actually a pretty good sounding combination.. better than being swallowed by square-enix, and never seen again.

I can imagine a dynasty warriors with the combat mechanics of ninja gaiden. I hope i'm not getting my franchises mixed up there...

Polite Society

Wow. I mean, Squeenix is being creepy about it, but I was pretty excited for this. Technically, Tecmo games are usually pretty sound, just lacking in, well, BRAINS. I like Team Ninja as much as the next guy, but think how much better it would be with compelling backstory and characters.

Instead, they're turning to the masters of mediocre. Idiots.

Dangeresque: I know Gundam is dirty but I love 00

Sure, they reject Square-Enix now, but in a few weeks they'll be desperate to merge with anyone. But it'll be too late then and they'll probably end up with Activision or something.

Jesse in Japan

Squeenix should just takeover them both... end of story...lol

Shijirou

Live life without you
Without you
How can I live life without you
Without you, how can I

Suntsu

@Terrorsaur.: No, it would more likely make them disappear.

Bardiel18

Haha maybe Im the only guy here who is still not used to hearing Square Enix.

Squaresoft always had a great ring to it...

Anywho, wth is tecmo thinking???

I mean honestly, a merger with Squaresof--err, enix, would only make them stronger, would it not??

Hmm.

Terrorsaur.

I was speaking to a friend about this article and explained my stance. If Tecmo were to accept this offer, they would be at the mercy of Square-Enix and staff cuts would be a definite. They can sweet talk all they want to right now, but in the end there will be layoffs and people finding themselves out of work they would have otherwise. Staying independent of bigger companies like SE helps them bring original content to the table. If a monopoly forms, it's people like us - the gamers that suffer. We get fewer good games and no developers will really care if everyone is under one roof. Keep the competitive edge alive, keep your distance.

Shhteve

@Bardiel18:
Well I suppose the name would disappear but would not their games live on?

Isnt that what its about?

Or maybe im wrong.

Terrorsaur.

@Yumayah:
Final Fantasy tactics FTW.
Secret of Mana.
Chrono Trigger.
Bahamut Lagoon..err I think it was a squaresoft title..

Ah the list could go on forever.

Terrorsaur.

@Terrorsaur.:

Don't worry, I remember good ol' Squaresoft. I still have games that were published by 'em without Greatest Hits labels. Good times, chocobo racing and random FF games.
Ah..

Anyway, on the merger. GOOD now the upcoming CGI women have a chance at only sporting in gravity defying hair, rather than gravity defying boobs in Square Enix.

... or maybe that is the point. Maybe Yoichi Wada can not let go of being unable to massively produce overly well endowed women to the masses... and Ninjas. Yeah them too.

Yumayah

@Terrorsaur.:

XENOGEARSSSSSSSSSSS

yeah, it's like my favorite game of all time lol.

maraxusofk

Stupid of Tecmo IMO, but oh well who cares.

Sentry

Imperial Hot is how I now describe myself. Sounds like a bad chinese food menu describing spicy...ness

denki

@Furious_Liver: Or might you consider that Tecmo could go ahead and have them discontinue the series (though I guess that wouldn't happen.... considering that's pretty much all Koei makes)? I doubt much will change beyond having the logo of Tecmo stamped on it.

KrelianAngel

Honestly I think this letter was sent out in hopes that shareholders would get wind of it. If the shareholders think it's in the best interest (lining their pockets with gold) to go with SE over Koei, I'm sure they will. Nothing Tecmo can do about it.

KrelianAngel

Screw Square Enix! They can take their RPG and Crystal crap up their a**. That being said, I don't know what to think about Koei. The only game I liked from these people is Operation Winback, this being one of my favorite games for the N64. Hmmm....

DragoManiac

Koei? I'm baffles as well, could be a number of things, but really?

Lockgar