Why Dynasty Warriors makers scrapped sequel to reinvent series

It is rare that a video game series becomes so popular it inspires copycats – but it is rarer still that it’s so unique it kicks off its own genre.

But that’s what happened with Dynasty Warriors, a series which pioneered the so-called “1 vs 1,000” gameplay, in which the player defeats thousands of enemies in each level.

Throughout years of development – the series has been going since 1997 on the original PlayStation – hardware limitations meant at its best only a few hundred enemies could appear on-screen at any one time.

But all that is now changing, with the power of modern consoles enabling as many as 10,000 opponents on-screen at once.

In other words, the “1 vs 1,000” moniker is finally coming true.

And with that new power comes a new game – after seven years in the wilderness, publisher Koei Tecmo is back with Dynasty Warriors: Origins.

Throughout this period the series has faced a problem – despite selling 21 million copies throughout its history – Dynasty Warriors has always sold significantly better in Japan than in the West.

“It’s something that we’ve been trying to get a lot of people overseas to play,” the head of developer Omega Force, Tomohiko Sho, told the BBC.

But times may be changing, as the release of Dynasty Warriors: Origins in January 2025 has seen encouraging sales.

In the UK, it broke the top 10 of the retail sales charts, while online it was the top-selling game on PC retailer Steam – with just under 70,000 people playing the game at the same time on launch.