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Mie Kumagai

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Mie Kumagai
熊谷 美恵
Born (1968-06-11) June 11, 1968 (age 56)
Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan
Occupation(s)Video game producer, director
Employer(s)Sega (1983–2015)
Colopl (2015–present)
Known forBeing the first female head of a Japanese game studio[1]
Notable workVirtua Tennis series
SpouseTakeshi Goden[2]

Mie Kumagai (熊谷 美恵, Kumagai Mie, born June 11, 1968) is a Japanese video game producer. She began working at Sega in 1993 as an amusement park attraction planner and transferred to the arcade division of its AM3 studio two years later. When this studio's boss, Hisao Oguchi, was promoted to president of the whole company in 2003, Kumagai became the new AM3 head and the first ever female president within Sega's development structure or any Japanese development studio. She produced a number of arcade titles before helming Sega's successful Virtua Tennis series for arcades and home consoles. As of 2015, Kumagai is an executive producer at the mobile game company Colopl.

Early life

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Kumagai was born on June 11, 1968, in Kanagawa Prefecture. She had very little interest in video games in her youth but briefly played the arcade game Rally-X and then the Game Boy titles Tetris and Final Fantasy Legend II.[3] She played some tennis as a student though she had a greater personal interest in skiing and windsurfing.[4] Kumagai attended Hosei University where she obtained a degree in philosophy in 1991.[5][6][7][8]

Career

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During the Japanese economic bubble in the early 1990s, Kumagai worked for an art consulting firm and then AOKI International, a men's clothing company, after the bubble burst.[5][9] She worked at AOKI's corporate planning office for about a year and a half before finding a newspaper article about Sega Enterprises and its prospects of opening amusement parks throughout Japan. A presentation to producer Tetsuya Mizuguchi, head of Sega's Emotional Design Laboratory, led to her to being hired in 1993 as a Joypolis theme attraction planner for that division of the company.[3][5][10] It was around this time that she truly became interested in video games.[5][9] In 1995, Kumagai was transferred to the arcade division of Sega AM3 research and development studio under Hisao Oguchi. She began working as a producer alongside programmer and eventual husband Takeshi Goden. They created the on-rails arcade titles Rail Chase 2 and Magical Truck Adventure, two games Kumagai thought female gamers could play together and would also appeal to families and couples.[5] She claimed she had couples in mind when designing these games rather than targeting female players specifically.[9] She would keep this ideology throughout most of her career.[7][11]

Kumagai also served as producer on releases such as Gunblade NY, DecAthlete, Winter Heat, and The Lost World: Jurassic Park.[2][5][7] At this point, she was the only female producer among 62 women and 575 men in Sega's AM departments.[9] Seeing the popularity of one-on-one fighting games in Japanese arcades throughout the decade inspired Kumagai to create a similar experience. She decided on a sports game to, again, appeal to broad demographics of consumers, pointing to the recent favorable critical and commercial performance of Sega AM2's Virtua Striker.[2][12] Kumagai presented a planned basketball game to her general manager Hisashi Suzuki, but it was rejected. However, her alternative proposal, a tennis game, was accepted.[2] Kumagai and her team learned that simplifying the controls from an initially gimmicky input was the best way to attract varied groups of players.[2][13] Virtua Tennis was first released in 1999 and was successful enough to spawn a franchise. Kumagai would be involved with subsequent entries in the series[14] and would lead to worldwide home console sales exceeding five million units as of 2017.[2]

During the turn of the millennium, Sega underwent a corporate restructuring and AM3 was rebranded as Hitmaker. In 2002, Kumagai became director and general manager of the studio's planning and producing department.[2] At this time, she contributed to titles like Cyber Troopers Virtual-On Marz and the Avalon no Kagi series.[15] In July 2003, Oguchi was promoted to president of Sega while Kumagai was appointed as head of Hitmaker at the age of 35. This made her the first female president of a Sega studio or any Japanese game studio in history.[1][2][15][16][17] Kumagai continued her game design and production duties despite her new administrative title.[10] In 2011, Kumagai became interested in entering the increasingly-lucrative mobile game market starting with an iOS and Android rendition of Derby Owners Club. She also produced a project directed at female users with the rhythm game Yumeiro Cast.[18] Kumagai left Sega in 2015 and was hired as an executive producer at Colopl, a company specializing in smartphone games.[11] There, she has overseen updates on their releases Hoshi no Shima no Nyanko, Quiz RPG: The World of Mystic Wiz, and Dragon Project.[18]

Works

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Year Title Credit(s)
1995 Rail Chase 2 Producer
1996 Gunblade NY
DecAthlete
1997 Winter Heat
The Lost World: Jurassic Park
1998 Magic Truck Adventure Director, producer
1999 Virtua Tennis Producer
Toy Fighter
2000 Confidential Mission Director, producer
Derby Owners Club Producer
Derby Owners Club 2000
2001 Derby Owners Club World Edition
Virtua Tennis 2
2002 Derby Owners Club II
2003 Cyber Troopers Virtual-On Marz
Astro Boy: Omega Factor
Avalon no Kagi
2004 Derby Owners Club Online
2005 Avalon no Kagi Ver. 2
2006 Virtua Tennis 3
2008 Derby Owners Club 2008: Feel the Rush Senior producer
2009 Derby Owners Club 2009: Ride for the Live
2011 Virtua Tennis 4 Creative producer
2012 Virtua Tennis Challenge
2015 Yumeiro Cast Producer
Squads: Saikyou no Kizuna Creative producer

References

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  1. ^ a b Fahey, Rob (July 3, 2003). "Sega names new HitMaker president". Gamesindustry.biz. Gamer Network. Archived from the original on October 29, 2004. Retrieved October 15, 2022.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Kushida Riko (June 30, 2017). "ゲームプロデューサー熊谷美恵さんの「セガ子会社社長兼クリエイターとして」⎯⎯ゲーム業界、彼女の履歴書" [Game Producer Mie Kumagai As "Sega Subsidiary President and Creator" Her Game Industry Resume] (in Japanese). Red Bull GmbH. Archived from the original on October 11, 2022. Retrieved October 10, 2022.
  3. ^ a b Editorial Department Shiraishi (May 20, 2015). "【開発者インタビュー】ゲーム業界で女性が生きるってどういうこと？ 先輩女性プロデューサーに聞いてみた！" [[Developer Interview] What does it mean for women to live in the game industry? I asked a senior female producer!]. OtakuIndustry.biz (in Japanese). Amata. Archived from the original on May 31, 2022. Retrieved October 15, 2022.
  4. ^ Sironimo (September 2, 2011). "Interview : Mie Kumagai créatrice de la série Virtua Tennis" [Interview: Mie Kumagai creator of the Virtua Tennis series] (in French). GamingWay. Archived from the original on September 23, 2021. Retrieved October 15, 2022.
  5. ^ a b c d e f Kushida Riko (May 26, 2017). "ゲームプロデューサー熊谷美恵さんの「セガ入社秘話、そしてAM3研時代」⎯⎯ゲーム業界、彼女の履歴書" [Game Producer Mie Kumagai's "Secret Story of Joining Sega, and the AM3 Lab Era" Her Game Industry Resume] (in Japanese). Red Bull GmbH. Archived from the original on October 10, 2022. Retrieved October 10, 2022.
  6. ^ Ogawa Kosuke (March 25, 2004). "「計画されない未来」： ヒットメーカー社長、熊谷美恵さんの祝辞" ["Unplanned Future": Hitmaker President Mie Kumagai's Congratulatory Address] (in Japanese). Kosuke Ogawa. Archived from the original on May 13, 2019. Retrieved October 14, 2022.
  7. ^ a b c Edge staff (August 1997). "AM3". Edge. No. 48. Future plc. pp. 58–63. ISSN 1350-1593.
  8. ^ IGDA staff (March 2, 2017). "ゲームシナリオ講師サミット～業界から求められるスキルとカリキュラム～(3/17)" [Game Scenario Instructor Summit ~Skills and Curriculum Required by the Industry~ (3/17)] (in Japanese). International Game Developers Association. Archived from the original on October 28, 2021. Retrieved October 15, 2022.
  9. ^ a b c d Next Generation staff (August 1997). "An Interview with Mie Kumagai". Next Generation. No. 32. Imagine Media. p. 52. ISSN 1078-9693.
  10. ^ a b Kikizo staff (August 8, 2003). "Interview With Hitmaker's Mie Kumagai". Kikizo. Archived from the original on October 15, 2022. Retrieved October 15, 2022.
  11. ^ a b Colopl staff (June 12, 2018). "執行役員／新卒2年目女性ゲームプランナー対談" [Executive Officer/Second-Year Female Game Planner Dialogue] (in Japanese). Colopl Inc. Archived from the original on December 7, 2021. Retrieved October 15, 2022.
  12. ^ Yin-Poole, Wesley (February 8, 2011). "Virtua Tennis goes back home". Eurogamer. Gamer Network. Archived from the original on October 15, 2022. Retrieved October 15, 2022.
  13. ^ Retro staff (2011). "Behind The Scenes: Virtua Tennis". Retro: Micro Games Action. Vol. 4. Imagine Publishing. pp. 197–8. ISBN 978-1-908222-3-05.
  14. ^ Hartley, Adam (December 10, 2010). "Sega Interview: Producer of 3D Virtua Tennis 4". TechRadar. Future plc. Archived from the original on May 8, 2021. Retrieved October 15, 2022.
  15. ^ a b Dengeki staff (July 2, 2003). "ヒットメーカー代表取締役社長に35歳の女性クリエーター熊谷美恵氏が就任" [35-year-old female creator Mie Kumagai is appointed as the president of Hit Maker]. Dengeki Online (in Japanese). ASCII Media Works. Archived from the original on October 14, 2022. Retrieved October 14, 2022.
  16. ^ GameSpot staff (July 3, 2003). "Sega group to get first female president". GameSpot. Fandom. Archived from the original on December 10, 2021. Retrieved October 13, 2022.
  17. ^ EGM staff (September 2003). "Press Start". Electronic Gaming Monthly. No. 170. Ziff Davis. p. 34. ISSN 1058-918X.
  18. ^ a b Kushida Riko (August 3, 2017). "ゲームプロデューサー熊谷美恵さんの「スマホゲームとコロプラでの今」⎯⎯ゲーム業界、彼女の履歴書" [Game Producer Mie Kumagai's "Smartphone Games and COLOPL Today" Her Game Industry Resume] (in Japanese). Red Bull GmbH. Archived from the original on October 15, 2022. Retrieved October 10, 2022.
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