Koei Plans Vietnam Studio

Koei will be opening up a game development subsidiary in Vietnam, the Nikkei Sangyou Shimbun newspaper reports today. The company hopes to make use of the country's reduced labor costs to control rising game development costs.

The new branch will open in Hanoi in mid September and will carry the name Koei Tecmo Vietnam (to be presumably written as Tecmo Koei Vietnam in English). It will start with 20 to 30 local employees, with a goal of expansion to 100 within three years.

Employees will undergo training by being sent to development facilities in Japan and China after being hired.

Despite the name, the paper reports that the Vietnam branch is a subsidiary of Koei rather than Tecmo Koei Holdings. Koei will invest ¥50 million capital in the firm.