page_title: Koei Tecmo
section_title: Koei
hierarchical_section_title: Koei Tecmo / History / Koei
caption_attribution_description: English: Koei logo.
context_page_description: Koei Tecmo Holdings Co., Ltd, is a Japanese video game holding company created in 2009 by the merger of Koei and Tecmo. Koei Tecmo Holdings owns several companies, the biggest one of those being its flagship game developer and publisher Koei Tecmo Games that was founded in 1978 as Koei.
  Koei Europe was the first subsidiary to change its name to Tecmo Koei Europe, Ltd and to release video games under the new moniker. In January 2010, Tecmo, Inc. and Koei Corporation followed suit by merging to form Tecmo Koei America Corporation.
  On April 1, 2010, Tecmo was declared disbanded in Japan. Its sister company Koei survived but was renamed Tecmo Koei Games and is now the main publishing arm of the group in Japan. The former development divisions of Tecmo and Koei were briefly spun-off as separate companies in March 2010, but folded into Tecmo Koei Games in April 2011. In addition to its primary trademark, Koei Tecmo Games occasionally used until 2016 the "Tecmo" and "Koei" brand names on new video games for marketing purposes.
context_section_description: Koei Co., Ltd. (株式会社コーエー Kabushiki gaisha Kōē, formerly 光栄 (Kōei)) was founded in July 1978 by Yoichi Erikawa and Keiko Erikawa. Yoichi was a student at Keio University, and when his family's rural dyestuffs business failed he decided to pursue his interest in programming. The company to this day is located in the Hiyoshi area of Yokohama along with Erikawa's alma mater, and the company's name is simply a spoonerism of the school's.
  Kō Shibusawa and Eiji Fukuzawa, whose names are supposed to have made up the name of the company, do not really exist and are names used by the company to avoid giving credit to individual contributors, effectively acting as alter-egos for Erikawa.
  The company initially focused on personal computer sales and made-to-order business software. In 1983 it released Nobunaga's Ambition (信長の野望 Nobunaga no Yabō), a historical strategy game set during the Sengoku period of Japanese history. The game went on to receive numerous awards, and Koei produced several more such games set against the backdrop of world history, including Romance of the Three Kingdoms, set during the Three Kingdoms period of Chinese history, and Uncharted Waters (大航海時代 Dai Kōkai Jidai; lit. Great Navigation Era), set in Portugal during the Age of Exploration.
  In 1988, Koei established a North American subsidiary, Koei Corporation, in California. This subsidiary localized Koei games for export to all territories outside Japan, as well as producing original games and concepts with the leadership of designer Stieg Hedlund, like Liberty or Death, Celtic Tales: Balor of the Evil Eye, and Gemfire . After Hedlund's departure, this subsidiary ceased game development in 1995, focusing instead on localization, sales and marketing.
  A Canadian subsidiary, Koei Canada, Inc. was established in early 2001, and a European subsidiary, Koei Limited was established in early 2003 in Hertfordshire, United Kingdom. In 2004, a Lithuanian subsidiary was formed.
caption: Former Koei logo
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