Play Through the History of Kemco Games with the Kemco: 50 RPGs Celebratory Bundle

Kemco Games is approaching its 40th anniversary and to celebrate they are releasing a new bundle showcasing the company’s history. Kemco: 50 RPGs Celebratory Bundle, will be released on August 3rd, 2023. The latest Xbox Wire features an in-depth interview with Kemco’s Managing Director Masaomi Kurokawa and International Manager Matteo Conti, in which they dive into their storied history. You can read part of the interview below or head to Xbox Wire to read the full transcript:

Celebrating its 40^th anniversary next year, Kemco has released multiple games throughout its history on Xbox – it has continued to produce around 10 games each year since 2018. Recently they reached a significant milestone with the release of their 50^th game on Xbox earlier this year. To commemorate this milestone, the Kemco: 50 RPGs Celebratory Bundle will be released on August 3, 2023, on Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S, which will collectively feature the history of Kemco’s games, especially RPGs.

For those who don’t know, Kemco began in 1984 with the founding of its predecessor, Kotobuki System Co., Ltd. Early on, the company developed and published game software, focusing on porting PC games in the ’80s and ’90s like Spy vs Spy, Shadowgate, Drakkhen, as well as original RPGs Indra no Hikari and Sanada Juyushi. Later, after roughly a decade of focusing on mobile gaming, Kemco returned to console gaming in the late 2010s. It was here they struck a partnership with ID@Xbox which led to them to start publishing their games on Xbox.

To commemorate the milestone of publishing their 50^th Xbox title, Xbox Wire Japan sat down with Kemco’s Managing Director Masaomi Kurokawa and International Manager Matteo Conti to learn more about their development structure, as well as how the Kemco: 50 RPGs Celebratory Bundle came to be.

Cooperating with multiple developers to create a system capable of releasing RPGs every month, Kemco releases around 10 new games a year. How many development lines do you have?

Matteo: In the past, we have released many games for feature phones and smartphones. From then, we have continued to work with several development companies. Since we have been working with them on RPGs for a long time, it made it possible to shift and adopt tools that have evolved over the years to develop and port games more efficiently. In general, development time is short; from six months to a year, and we have multiple development lines to release one game almost every month.

Masaomi: This is something I always think about, but when other companies release a new title, their next move would often be to continue supporting the game for a year or more after its release with DLCs, major updates, and so on. Here at Kemco, such DLCs and updates come in the form of “new games”. Our approach is to keep publishing new titles, as if they were additions to a single game experience that players recognize as Kemco. This is the backbone to our reasoning of releasing a new game every month as much as possible.

Tell us about the process during the consideration and creation of the Kemco: 50 RPGs Celebratory Bundle, which includes 50 of Kemco’s games?

Matteo: Actually, we had not been too concerned about how many titles were released on Xbox until now. It all started when I had a chance to meet with a local member of the ID@Xbox team whom I had not seen in person for several years due to the pandemic. He said to me “Oh, by the way, Kemco is going to hit the 50-title milestone”, and that was when I was made aware and thought, “What? That many?”. As a company, we were mildly surprised.

Masaomi: This revelation led to Microsoft formally proposing the idea, and KEMCO deciding to take the opportunity. The 50-title bundle will be available for a limited period of 50 days.

Check out Xbox Wire for the rest of the interview. Stay tuned to GamingTrend for all your gaming, tech, and entertainment news!

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