Quick Tecmo Follow-Up

Posted by Liz Surette on September 3, 2008

If the seemingly precarious fate of Tecmo had you twitching in suspense, it’s probably time to wipe your brow and take a breath.  In today’s press conference out of Tokyo, new president Jin Hasegawa announced the rest of the 2008 lineup, but no takeover by Square. The lineup includes three new titles from Team Ninja (albeit without Itagaki who is in the process of suing his former employer), a new Rygar game for the Wii, and a modern update of the ol’ football game your author and her brothers spent many days and nights with on the NES–Tecmo Bowl: Kickoff for the DS.

Although their stock has fallen today, this announcement bodes well for the troubled company. We should learn more at TGS, but for now suffice it to say that at least the three Team Ninja titles should generate enough buzz for some positive speculation (and therefore an increase in stock prices that would make the corporation safer), even though some die-hard fans will be as skeptical about a Team Ninja game without Itagaki as I would be about a Silent Hill game without Yamaoka.

All told, the positive lineup news combined with the fact that the deadline for Tecmo’s acceptance of Square Enix’s bid is right down to the wire is not particularly conducive to said bid.

UPDATE: 9/6/08. The deadline has come and gone and, as predicted, selence. Tecmo has since started negotiation of a merger with Koei (Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Nobunaga’s Ambition, Dynasty Warriors). More to come

Popularity: unranked [?]