‘Dynasty Warriors’ Developer Koei Tecmo Creates Dedicated Quality Assurance Team To Handle “Everything From Functional Bugs To Local Culture And Social Issues”
Spencer Baculi
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Following in the footsteps of Square Enix and their infamous ‘Ethics Department’, veteran Japanese video game studio Koei Tecmo have moved to create a new internal team dedicated to “raising the social quality” of their products.
The player character unlocks their Yokai form in Nioh 2 Special Edition (2021), Koei Tecmo
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Brought to recent widespread attention thanks to a recent from Twitter user @Mondblut1984, the existence of this new team was first made public on October 31st, 2022, courtesy of the Dynasty Warrior developer’s annual integrated report.
Marie Rose (Christine Marie Cabanos) does her best Doronjo impression in Dead or Alive 5 (2012), Koei Tecmo
Amidst their various financial and corporate governance reports, Koei Tecmo also shone a spolight on their work in achieving various ‘Environmental, social, and gorporate governance’ (ESG) benchmarks and ‘Sustainable Development Goals’ (SDG).
Therein, the developer included a section explaining their dedication to “social initiatives”.
Koei Tecmo Integrated Report 2022 (Click to Expand)
“As a member of society,” the company explained, “we are committed to academic promotion, regional and social contributions, and disaster relief.”
According to a list of their work in this field, the Atelier franchise publisher’s efforts this commitment include “adherence to industry guidelines and ratings”, “addressing gaming addiction and gacha issues,” and “continuing academic promotion, regional and social contributions, and disaster relief activities”.
Most notably, however, is their dedication also extends to “raising the social quality of our products”.
“A dedicated usability team has been established within our Quality Assurance Division,” explained Koei Tecmo. “In addition, we have assembled a database of QA knowledge featuring everything from functional bugs to local culture and social issues.”
Rachel (Tara Strong) unloads on a group of demons in Ninja Gaiden II (2008), Koei Tecmo
Further, in their “Financial Results for the Fiscal Year Ending March 2023“, as released on April 24th, Koei Tecmo explicitly asserted that “realization of SDGs and ESG initiatives” is a significant part of their management plan for the coming year.
Koei Tecmo Financial Results for the Fiscal Year Ending March 2023
Though the developer did not provide any details on how they would handle such “issues”, given the current direction of the industry, it is presumed that their solutions will involve working to ensure that all of their products are as inoffensive and safe as possible to Western scolds.
In particular, this presumption is informed in large part by Koei Tecmo’s own history, as recent years have seen the developer readily edit their works in the hopes of avoiding outrage from the terminally online.
Ryza (Yuri Noguchi) has her innards replaced with a space-time anomaly in Atelier Ryza 3: Alchemist of the End & the Secret Key (2023), Koei Tecmo
From denying Western players a ‘Wet T-shirt‘ costume for Casca in Berserk: Band of the Hawk, to replacing Ryza’s panties with an all-too-common ‘black void‘ effect in Atelier Ryza 3, to the removal of ‘jiggle physics‘ from the Ninja Gaiden Master Collection – as well as choosing to represent Ninja Gaiden 2 with the censored blood-less PlayStation 3 version of the game, the once-esteemed master of the musou genre have made it clear that they are more than willing to self-censor in the hopes of attracting the a ‘wider audience’.
Casca (Toa Yukinari) shows off her JP-exclusive ‘wet t-shirt’ costume in Berserk and the Band of the Hawk (2016), Koei Tecmo
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