When developer Team Ninja's action RPG NiOh released back in early February, it wasn't quite clear how successful the game would be. As you may know, the game had a rather crazy development, which started all the way back in 2004. Yet, 13 years later, Ni-Oh released onto digital and retail shelves, and has been both a commercial and critical success.

Actually, according to Koei Tecmo’s general manager Yasutomo Watanabe, the game is the publishers' (it was published by Sony outside of Japan) most successful game in the west ever.

According to Koei Tecmo, in a little more than a month, the action RPG has managed to surpass 1 million units (it's not clear if this means the game has sold 1 million units or has shipped 1 million units):

Koei Tecmo’s general manager Yasutomo Watanabe told MCV the following about the game's performance:

“Nioh has been particularly challenging, as it’s a brand new IP we’ve been working on for years. It utilized all the resources of our company. We received unequivocal support from our western publisher, Sony Interactive Entertainment, and Nioh is performing very well so far so we are very happy with it.”

The general manager adds:

"This position essentially validates our strategy to expand our brand and user-base in the long term and proves that our titles can reach the highest spots in the charts. With overall positive player feedback and media reception we are very pleased by this result and hope to repeat it in the near future.”

Watanabe-san continues by saying the Japanese developer and publisher learned quite a bit from Nioh's release, particularly how to garner a wider audience.

“From a development standpoint, the approach Team Ninja chose yielded very important results, as they essentially included the wider public on development decisions from an early stage with the release of the Alpha demo. Being so open, [as well as] incorporating feedback from the fans certainly helped increase interest in the game and shape players’ expectations.”

NiOh's success also begs the question of a Ninja Gaiden series revival. The series is arguably the most appealing IP to western gamers that Koei Tecmo owns, and developer Team Ninja's creative director Tom Lee did recently say NiOh could serve was a gateway into the next chapter of Ninja Gaiden. To this point,  Yasutomo Watanabe had the following to say:

We know a lot of our fans in the world have been waiting for the next Ninja Gaiden and it is one of the most important projects for us as well,” he says. “At the moment, we are not in a position to announce anything, but we are hoping to share good news with you once we are ready.”

NiOh is available exclusively on the PS4.