Toei is officially making a bigger move into games, and surprisingly, it is not starting by farming the usual legendary anime names.
The entertainment giant behind Toei Animation — yes, the studio tied to massive names like Dragon Ball and Digimon — has announced Toei Games, a new in-house publishing label focused on video games. According to Eurogamer, the label was revealed by Toei president and CEO Fumio Yoshimura, with its first titles planned for PC via Steam before expanding to consoles later.
The first Toei Games project is set to be announced on Friday, 24 April, with more titles expected to follow.
New games, not just old anime licenses
Here is the interesting part: Toei Games is not kicking things off with obvious anime heavy hitters like Dragon Ball, One Piece, Digimon, or Sailor Moon.
Instead, Toei wants this label to build new IP from scratch, working with creators from Japan and overseas. Yoshimura said Toei Games will use the company’s experience from video production to create its own kind of entertainment for players worldwide.
That is a pretty bold angle, especially in a games market where giant IP names usually get pushed first because they are safer. If Toei had announced a new Dragon Ball spin-off or Digimon RPG label, everyone would understand the play immediately. But going original first suggests Toei is trying to build something longer-term rather than just cashing in on nostalgia.
Why SEA anime fans should care
For Malaysia and SEA, this is worth watching closely. Anime games already have a massive audience here, but we all know the cycle: famous IP, mobile gacha, big launch hype, then maybe the game either becomes a daily grind or disappears after a few years.
Toei Games starting with fresh worlds could be a good thing if the projects are built as proper games first, not just fan-service machines. Steam-first also matters because PC gaming is still huge across the region, from home setups to cybercafes and budget gaming laptops. If pricing is reasonable and the games are not region-locked nonsense, Malaysian players could jump in without needing a console on day one.
There is also a creative upside. Toei knows character design, long-running story worlds, and how to build franchises that travel across generations. If that production knowledge carries into games properly, we might get original titles with strong anime identity instead of another generic licensed tie-in.
Of course, the big question is execution. Making anime is not the same as making games, and the market is already crowded gila. Steam is full of stylish Japanese and anime-inspired games fighting for attention. Toei Games will need more than a famous parent company logo to stand out.
Still, this move feels refreshing. Everyone expected Toei to open the vault and throw Dragon Ball at us immediately. Instead, it is betting on new characters, new settings, and potentially new fandoms.
If the first reveal lands well, Toei Games could become one of the more interesting anime-adjacent publishers to watch this year. If not, well, at least we know they still have some of the biggest IP emergency buttons in the industry.
Source: Eurogamer