Japanese games powerhouse Koei Tecmo has partnered with South Korean publisher Nexon to announce a new mobile game, Dynasty Warriors M, with pre-registrations open effective immediately.

Select Asian territories have already entered soft launch (as of October 20 on the Google Play Store), but now everyone is able to pre-register with a full release expected by the end of the year.

Moving with the times

Dynasty Warriors M is the first new game in the franchise this decade, coming over five years on from February 2018’s console title Dynasty Warriors 9. M appears to be reusing assets from 9 and is in many ways a rebranded port, though only 50 of its 94 characters are currently due to appear.

As well as fighting in the late Eastern Han dynasty, M will feature suitably mobile attributes like a city builder and in-app purchase options.

This isn’t the first time Koei and Nexon have teamed up for a game either, with Dynasty Warriors Unleashed landing on mobile in 2017 with impressive numbers from the offset. After one million downloads on launch day, it went on to gather five million players in just over a month, and bolstered Nexon’s quarterly earnings to $431.7 million at the time.

This latest venture between the companies comes at a time when fans are hungry for new Dynasty Warriors content, but M isn’t just relying on its name. In a push to get more day one players, Koei and Nexon are incentivising pre-registrations with special rewards like item unlocks, an extra 50,000 gold, and playable military general Zhao Yun.

This is similar to Niantic and Capcom’s recent pre-install strategy for Monster Hunter Now - rewarding players for registering early - but unlike the fixed rewards being offered in Dynasty Warriors M, Monster Hunter Now’s rewards were promised to increase in value based on the total number of people who registered.

After years of silence in the mobile space, Koei finally announced a return to the platform with Atelier Resleriana - its first mobile reveal of the decade.