About KOEI TECMO GAMES

KOEI TECMO GAMES Co., Ltd. emerged in April 2010 from the merger of two game development companies, KOEI and TECMO. Today, the company drives innovation across both console and mobile video games, showcasing a portfolio built on creativity and expertise. With seven distinct development brands under its umbrella, KOEI TECMO stands out for its diverse range of gaming experiences. Each brand has a unique focus — KOU SHIBUSAWA delivers immersive historical strategy games like Nobunaga's Ambition and Romance of the Three Kingdoms, while Team NINJA has gained international recognition thanks to action games like NIOH, and the midas brand specializes in mobile app games, expanding the company's presence into the rapidly growing mobile gaming market.

Challenges of aligning in-game elements with real-world locations

KOEI TECMO GAMES entered the competitive mobile gaming market with an ambitious goal to become the “world's No.1 digital entertainment company.” To make their mark, the midas brand introduced Nobunaga's Ambition: Shutsujin, a location-based historical game set in Japan’s Sengoku period. The concept of the game centers around expanding territories by blocks. Players must physically visit locations in order to discover bases and expand their territory by fighting and defeating the warlords of each region. The key focus of the game is user experience — how players link the game to real-world locations while interacting with the map.

To provide the users with an authentic and immersive experience, KOEI TECMO’s team needed to link in-game elements to actual geographic locations across Japan. Positions of castles were aligned with places like train stations or parks, while merchant houses with real-world shops. Existing roads, buildings, and landmarks needed to be accurately represented across different regions of Japan, from Hokkaido to Okinawa, in combination with virtual recreations of architectural elements from the Sengoku period. A key challenge for KOEI TECMO’s development team was to make sure that each area felt true to its historical and cultural context, while also providing players with an engaging map-based and real-world gameplay experience.

Enriching historical and geographical context with real-world location data

Mapbox offered KOEI TECMO an affordable and flexible location-based solution with a comprehensive set of interactive features that played a central role in the development of Nobunaga's Ambition. Cooperating with Mapbox has made it possible for KOEI TECMO to integrate actual latitude and longitude coordinates of real-world Points of Interest (POIs) into the game and align them with specific gameplay mechanics. 

Precise POIs are essential for the design of Nobunaga’s Ambition: Shutsujin, ensuring that events like battles, architectural elements such as castles, and geographic features like rivers and ponds are accurately linked to their real-world locations. The quality of POI data enhances the realism of the Sengoku-period map by providing historical and geographical context

Using Mapbox, the KOEI TECMO team was able to weave detailed location-based data seamlessly into the game. This allowed synchronizing the game’s world with Japan’s actual terrain, ensuring that gameplay remained practical to play while also immersing players in an accurate historical landscape.

Mapbox provides unparalleled technical collaboration

The Mapbox team worked closely with KOEI TECMO’s developers, offering both technical advice and creative suggestions for enhancing map efficiency.

Frequent changes and revisions are a normal part of game development. To ensure that any necessary updates were applied on time, the KOEI TECMO and Mapbox technical teams held regular meetings, innovating and adapting together to ensure performance of the location data integrations within the game.

Focusing on game development, leaving location expertise to Mapbox

By cooperating with Mapbox, KOEI TECMO could streamline operations and focus on its core strength — game development — without worrying about building or maintaining a complex geospatial data system. With Mapbox handling the complexities of real-world location data integration, KOEI TECMO could focus on creating engaging content and developing a unique and fun gaming experience that brings something new and innovative to the highly competitive mobile game market. 

Conquering the mobile app market with Mapbox

The successful launch of Nobunaga's Ambition: Shutsujin shows the importance of selecting the right technology partner when innovating with location. Nobunaga's Ambition: Shutsujin is a polished and immersive location-based game experience with a stable and interactive map experience, powered by the Mapbox location platform.

Operating as a strategic partner rather than just a technology provider, Mapbox helped the KOEI TECMO team overcome technical challenges and enhanced the creative process, bringing to life their vision of an immersive, location-based historical game.

‍