Toei Co., Ltd. is a name most people know for tokusatsu series like Kamen Rider and Super Sentai, but the company has recently branched out into a very different space: video game publishing. At Busan Indie Connect Festival (BIC) 2026, we had an exclusive sit down with Hiroaki Nagashima, Manager in Toei’s New Business Development Department and Producer at Toei Games, to talk about why the company decided to step into gaming, how it plans to grow the business, and what players can expect going forward.

Not Quite an Indie Publisher, Despite the Label

Toei Games currently publishes three titles, and because of their smaller scale, many people have assumed the company is positioning itself as an indie publisher. Nagashima clarified that this isn’t really the case.

“We don’t actually describe ourselves as an indie game publisher,” he said.

“The three titles we are currently handling just happen to be relatively small in scale and fall within what would generally be considered the size of indie games. That’s why we are often perceived as an indie game publisher.”

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He added that Toei Games has bigger ambitions down the line.

“Our intention is not to limit ourselves to indie games. In the future, we would also like to release games with much larger budgets.”

One of the more interesting choices Toei Games has made is focusing on brand new intellectual property rather than using the company’s already famous franchises. Nagashima explained that this ties into a long-term company vision.

“The company has a vision for the next ten years. One of the missions within that vision is to create new IPs outside of Kamen Rider and Super Sentai,” he said. Toei considered several types of media for this goal, including dramas and films, but ultimately landed on games.

Part of that decision came from a specific example in the industry. Nagashima pointed to The Exit 8, a Japanese game that gained popularity and was later announced to be getting a film adaptation around the same time Toei began planning its game business in March of the previous year. “That made us realize that there could be an opportunity to start with a game and eventually expand it into visual media. That’s one of the reasons we chose games,” he said, confirming that this example was indeed part of the inspiration behind the move.

As for whether Kamen Rider or Super Sentai games could still happen someday, Nagashima didn’t rule it out. “For now, we have decided that we want to compete by creating original IPs first. That’s why we haven’t chosen Kamen Rider for our current projects,” he said.

“That said, the possibility of releasing a Kamen Rider or Super Sentai game in the future is not zero.”

How Toei Games Fits Alongside Partners Like Bandai Namco

Toei has long worked with other companies in the game industry, and Bandai Namco’s Digimon games were brought up as an example. Nagashima explained that this relationship works differently from what Toei Games is doing now.

“Regarding Digimon, the rights are held by our group company, Toei Animation. Toei Animation licenses the IP to Bandai Namco, and Bandai Namco uses that license to develop games,” he said, describing it as a straightforward licensing arrangement.

He also shared some background on why Toei decided to start publishing games on its own in the first place. “There was a period when some of our partner companies, which had previously been consistently making games using Toei’s IP, temporarily stopped making games using Toei’s IP. At that point, we thought that if games were not going to be made for a while, perhaps we should start making them ourselves. That was also one of the reasons why our team was established.” He clarified that this wasn’t a full break with partner studios, just a quieter period.

“It wasn’t necessarily that they completely ended the relationship. It was more of a temporary situation.”

Since Toei Games’ mission involves building new IPs, we asked whether that meant the company only works on internally created games or if it’s also open to publishing titles made by outside developers. Nagashima confirmed the latter is very much part of the plan. “Of course, we would,” he said.

“The three titles we are currently handling were not designed by us at Toei Games. They were created by their respective creators.”

When it comes to how ownership is split with those outside creators, Nagashima laid out the arrangement clearly. “Basically, the original rights remain entirely with the creator. Our company holds the rights for secondary use. For example, rights related to merchandising, events, adaptations into visual media, and other forms of secondary exploitation are held by us. However, the original rights themselves remain with the creators.”

Targeting the Asian Market First

Toei Games also has clear ideas about where it wants to grow. Nagashima pointed out that PC gaming still hasn’t caught on as widely in Japan compared to consoles, and that’s an area the company wants to help change. “The so-called indie game industry is still at a stage where PC gaming has not become very widespread in Japan. So, from our perspective, one of our goals is to expand the share of the PC game market in Japan.”

On the business strategy side, Nagashima said Asia comes first. “Our strategy is to focus on the Asian market first. Of course, we are also thinking globally, but our initial target is Asia. For Japan, we plan to release our games simultaneously on Steam and Nintendo Switch. For the rest of Asia, however, our main focus for marketing will be Steam.” He added that Steam also plays a role in reaching further global audiences, particularly English and Chinese speaking markets.

Toward the end of our conversation, Nagashima reflected on how far the Toei Games brand has come and what he hopes happens next.

“The Toei Games brand name has already become quite recognizable, and people have started to understand what Toei Games is. However, I feel that our individual titles are still not well understood, and their recognition is still relatively low. So, I would really like people to take an interest in the games themselves.”

In other words, while more people now know the Toei Games name, Nagashima hopes attention shifts toward the individual titles the company is putting out, rather than the brand alone.