Tecmo to Square-Enix: NAW THANKS

There's news all over the place this morning--so here's the story at Kotaku--that Tecmo has flat-out rejected last week's takeover bid by RPG supergiant Square Enix. Friendly or not, the deal would have assuredly left beleaguered Tecmo playing second fiddle to big ol' SE, and recent scuttlebutt has indicated the controlling interests at Tecmo want to keep the company as independent as possible. Those of you hoping for a vastly increased mammary quotient in your Final Fantasy will sadly be left out in the cold. (That's giant boobies, to the layman.)

Apparently, maintaining that independence instead involves hooking it up with Koei--with whom Tecmo is on a much more level playing field--to establish some sort of "little-second-tier-Japanese-publishers-that-could" scenario. The merger talks have just started, but if this deal goes through, will both companies bring their respective experiences to bear--Tecmo with Gallop Racer and Koei with G1 Jockey--to create the first true horse-racing simulation powerhouse? I don't think the world is ready.

UPDATE: Just so you don't think it's all sturm und drang over in the Tecmo camp these days, company reps have started talking about event plans at the Tokyo Game Show next month, and Shacknews mentions that Team Ninja will supposedly have not one but three--count 'em, three--new games to announce at that time. Under the Itagaki regime, Team Ninja always seemed like a one-game-at-a-time, my-way-or-the-highway sort of operation to me, so I'm curious to see how Tecmo is shaking up their operational procedures now that his iron grip has been removed.