Dead or Alive Koei Tecmo Adult Fanart Content

Dead or Alive Devs Aren’t Happy With Adult Fanart of its Characters

Dead or Alive publisher Koei Tecmo is not very happy with the amount of adult fanart and content for its fighting game, which by the way is notorious for its suggestive female character designs. According to a new article, Koei Tecmo apparently takes “strict action” against over 3,000 pieces of adult fanart and content every single year, believing it could damage their reputation.

As reported by GameWatch (translation by Automaton), Tomotoshi Nishimura, general manager of Koei Tecmo’s legal affairs department, spoke about how the company feels about fanart at Tokyo esports Festa 2025. Nishimura started by saying that it has no problem with fans creating art and content based on the Dead or Alive series, even going as far as being okay with fans earning a bit of profit from their work such as Koei Tecmo’s sponsorship of events like Comiket where fans sell their fanart.

However, Koei Tecmo takes “strict action” against around 3,000 pieces of fanart and content every year that break certain boundaries. More specifically, the company isn’t happy with adult fan content that gets made from the Dead or Alive series – this is also a series that has a handful of beach volleyball spin-off games where it dresses its female characters in revealing swimsuits. Koei Tecmo added that they see the characters they make “like daughters.” Their words, not mine.

On the bright side, back in November 2022 it was reported that Koei Tecmo and developer Team Ninja had plans to reboot the Ninja Gaiden and Dead or Alive franchises. The last game in the fighting franchise, Dead or Alive 6, underperformed in terms of sales and critical reception. While the heavy-hitting fighting game franchises like Tekken and Street Fighter still dominate the scene, it seems like Koei Tecmo’s Dead or Alive series won’t be able to make a dent unless a big switch-up is in the works.

Source: GameWatch

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Editor-in-Chief of Nexus Hub, writer at GLITCHED. Former writer at The Gaming Report and All Otaku Online. RPG addict that has wonderful nightmares of Bloodborne 2.

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