On April 20, 2026, "Toei Company," which is the Japanese entertainment giant and majority shareholder of "Toei Animation," which is the studio responsible for global franchises including One Piece, Dragon Ball, Digimon, Sailor Moon, and Pretty Cure, announced the establishment of a brand-new in-house video game publishing label called Toei Games.
Toei Games will initially enter the PC gaming market via Steam, before expanding to consoles, including PlayStation, Nintendo Switch, and Xbox. The most surprising aspect is that the studio's first wave of games will focus entirely on original IP, not adaptations of Toei's catalog of anime and manga.
The first title is set to be officially unveiled on April 24, 2026. According to Toei's President and CEO Fumio Yoshimura, the move is a deliberate part of the company's medium- to long-term global expansion strategy, which is codenamed as "TOEI NEW WAVE 2033," which aims to deliver Toei-crafted stories to every corner of the world.
Games Toei Games Plans to Launch:
Specific titles have not yet been confirmed, but full details are expected on April 24, 2026. Toei Games has provided a clear directional roadmap for its initial game lineup. Critically, the studio has confirmed that its first wave of titles will not draw from Toei's vast existing IP library.
There will be no Dragon Ball game, no One Piece video game adaptation, and no Sailor Moon title coming out of Toei Games at launch. Instead, the label's stated mission is to "create a new intellectual property that will captivate the world, starting with games" — developing brand-new game IPs from scratch, produced by talented creators from both Japan and around the world.
The studio will release on Steam first, targeting the global PC gaming community. Console ports to PlayStation, Nintendo Switch, and Xbox are planned as a second phase. The Toei Games logo itself was designed by Kairosoft, who is the Japanese indie developer famous for its charming pixel-art simulation games (Game Dev Story, Mega Mall Story, Game Dev Story+). Kairosoft also created a pixel-art animation of Toei's iconic "Waves on the Rough Shore" movie-opening sequence for the brand reveal.
Why Entering the Video Game Industry Now?
The company is approaching its 75th anniversary in 2026, and the establishment of Toei Games is positioned as the company's bold "new challenge." Toei President and CEO "Fumio Yoshimura" explained the rationale directly in his statement: video games are a uniquely global medium — one that transcends language barriers and national borders in a way that few other entertainment formats can.
Toei's competitor, "Toho," which is the production company behind 'Godzilla,' has also recently announced plans to strengthen its own video game business, including both console and mobile game development. So that means there is also a significant competitive dimension to this move. While Toho is leaning on its famous Godzilla IP, Toei is taking the opposite approach by building new IP from the ground up.
"Games are an extremely global form of entertainment that continues to spread beyond language and national borders. Our challenge in the game business, with the global market as our main battleground, is the embodiment of that vision."
— Fumio Yoshimura, President & CEO, Toei Company (via Gematsu)
Furthermore, Toei has already been quietly testing the waters of video game publishing through its animation arm. Toei Animation recently co-published the indie Steam game "NOROI KAGO: The Grudged Domain" and is currently supporting Nestopi Inc.'s survival adventure title "Re:VER PROJECT -TOKYO-."
Questions for You:
- What are your thoughts on Toei's plans?
- What do you think of Toei's decision to focus on PC development before moving to consoles?
- Do you think Toei can compete with established giants like Bandai Namco in the anime-gaming space?
Let me know in the comments, where you can also provide the latest news so I can make a breakdown of it.
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