After Graduate School, I joined Bandai Namco Entertainment as a Release Manager. A release manager is a specialized producer focused on certification, submissions, regional compliance, ratings, first-party relations, and publishing.
For live service games like Taiko no Tatsujin, Mobile Suit Gundam: Battle Operation 2, and Tekken 7, I handled post-release support by certifying and submitting patches, giving feedback on development schedules, and working with first-party portals to configure offers and bundles. This allowed us to support our live service games with regular updates and offers. After the release of each patch, I would gather information from social media and forums to gauge user sentiment and report back to the developer.
For new games like Digimon Survive and Mobile Suit Gundam Battle Operation Code Fairy, I worked with a production team to handle ratings submissions, CQA testing and patch submission. I reviewed schedules and development plans to ensure that our local team’s needs were properly accounted for, and that new features and content were compliant with platform and regional rules. As they approached release, I worked to configure metadata and prepared appealing store pages in multiple languages. While I worked with every major console platform, my focus was on PlayStation in particular.
A partial list of projects that I owned at BNEA are as follows.
Post Launch Support
- .hack//G.U. Last Recode (2017)
- Tekken 7 (2017)
- Naruto to Boruto Shinobi Striker (2018)
- Mobile Suit Gundam Battle Operation 2 (2019)
- Jump Force (2019)
New Releases
- Mobile Suit Gundam: Battle Operation Code Fairy (2021)
- Taiko no Tatsujin: The Drum Master (2022)
- Digimon Survive (2022)
- Dragon Ball: The Breakers (2022)
- Ultra Kaiju Monster Rancher (2022)
- One Piece Odyssey (2023)
- Digimon World: Next Order (2023)
- My Hero Ultra Rumble (2023)
I also had the opprotunity to support the following games in other minor ways by covering other release managers, giving feedback, or participating in meetings and playlists.
- Sword Art Online: Alicization Lycoris (2020)
- Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: All Star Battle R (2022)
- Taiko no Tatsujin: Rhythm Festival (2022)
- Elden Ring (2022)
- Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon (2023)
I moved to iam8bit in December 2022 to take on a dual role in Production Management and Producing. I handled both their physical game distribution projects, as well as their iam8bit Presents Digital Publishing Label.
The physical production aspect of the role entailed providing guidance to developers and publishers on physical patch submissions, coordinating with freelance artists and designers on assets, and communicating with vendors and manufacturers to keep production on track. I also coordinated with Skybound Entertainment on matters pertaining to retail releases. My projects included
- The Pathless – Physical Edition (2023)
- Cozy Grove – Physical Edition (2023)
- Bear & Breakfast – Physical Edition (2023)
- Neon White – Physical Edition (2023)
The iam8bit Presents Digital publishing label required external production work from me. I reviewed milestones, coordinated playtesting, and interfaced with external vendors to support projects with QA testing, localization, and porting support. iam8bit Presents published projects include:
- Simpler Times (TBA)
- Escape Academy: Escape from the Past DLC (2023)
KEVIN JAMES WONG 