Koei-Tecmo focusing on the West, not Japan

Swine Flu may be keeping Koei-Tecmo (well, really just the Koei side) from heading to E3 next month, but it won't keep the company away from North America forever. In fact, Koei-Tecmo plans to have a stronger presence in the West, shifting its focus onto more original, Western-aimed IP. "Our expansion into the Western market is the most important part of our mid-term plan," Koei CEO Kenji Matsubara told MCVUK, citing the yearly decline of the Japanese market as a major factor.

Koei's Canadian studio in Toronto will receive the bulk of the workload on these new IPs -- which means the strictly-Japanese work ethics currently at the studio will probably have to go. Hopefully though, it won't get rid of all its ethics.