Koei-Tecmo: Hyrule Warriors has given the Dynasty Warriors series a second wind

In January, Koei-Tecmo announced that over 1 million units of Hyrule Warriors had been shipped worldwide, with most of it in Europe and North America. It was therefore one of the most successful games for the Dynasty Warriors franchise outside Japan, and according to Akihiro Suzuki (producer at Koei-Tecmo), it gave the series a second wind in the west.

He explains that from the start, Koei-Tecmo has been able to bring the series to a Western audience, with some pretty positive feedback from fans. This is partyly due to how accessible the gameplay of the games are, even for players in Europe and North America. The problem is that now, the series has been going on for over 18 years, so fans are already quite accustomed to the whole package (story, gameplay, etc.), and Koei-Tecmo really needs to keep the whole thing as fresh as possible with new entries.

In recent years, the series sales have been declining, but some collaborations with popular IPs have managed to give the franchise a second wind: they brought in new players who had never played a Dynasty or Samurai Warriors game before. This is exactly what Hyrule Warriors did: it gave some freshness the series. Now, according to Akihiro Suzuki, Koei-Tecmo’s task is to keep those new players happy (by keep them playing Warriors games, obviously!).

Source: CVG