Tecmo
From Dead or Alive Wiki
Tecmo (Also used to be known as Tehkan Ltd.) is a global developer and publisher of interactive entertainment software. Tecmo has been entertaining gamers since 1967. The company's portfolio includes the world famous video game franchises Dead or Alive, and created games such as Ninja Gaiden, Tecmo Bowl, Fatal Frame, and others.
[edit] History
Tecmo was founded on July 31, 1967 as a supplier of cleaning equipment. Two years later, in 1969, it started to sell amusement equipment.
On March 1981, a U.S. division was inaugurated as U.S. Tehkan, Inc.. A month later, on April 1981, Tehkan released in Japan its first arcade video game titled Pleiads (which was distributed in America by Centuri). When it was still called Tehkan, the company also released such classic games as Bomb Jack and Tehkan World Cup. On January 8, 1986, Tehkan officially changed its name to Tecmo.
On August 29, 2008 Square Enix made plans for a friendly takeover of Tecmo by purchasing shares at a 30 percent premium with a total bid of 22.3 billion yen. On September 4, 2008 Tecmo officially declined the takeover proposal. Tecmo has since been in talks with Koei about a possible merger between the two companies. They agreed in November 2008 to merge on April 1, 2009 to form Tecmo Koei Holdings.[5] On January 26, 2009 the two companies approved the merger, the holding company formed on April 1, 2009 as planned.
During the Beijing Olympics, the reminder of Tecmo teamed up with Chinese MMO game developer Shanda to release Dead or Alive Online, a MMO release for the series. The game is currently in open beta as of now.
[edit] Lawsuits
On the 3rd June, 2008 Team Ninja head Tomonobu Itagaki resigned from the company and filed a 145 million yen ($1.3 million) lawsuit for "unpaid completion bonuses" and "emotional distress". This was followed by another lawsuit filed on the 16th of June by two plaintiffs on behalf of Tecmo's 300 employees for unpaid wages amounting to ¥8.3 million.
