About Toroneko | Consulting on Game Business | トロネコのゲームマーケティング大学

About Toroneko | Consulting on Game Business

About Toroneko | Consulting on Game Business

Japanese / English

Hello—I’m Toroneko.

If you’ve opened this page, I’m guessing you’re at least a little curious about what I do.

If you’re thinking:

“I’d like to bounce some ideas around.”

then I’d be happy if you keep reading.

What does Toroneko do?

In short, I help teams in console and mobile game businesses organize the assumptions and structure needed to make a game work as a business—while working across areas that often get separated, such as development, live operations, and marketing.

That’s why my title is not “marketer,” but Game Business Strategy Producer.

What Toroneko Believes Makes a Game Business Succeed

After spending many years working in games,
I have come to feel that there are clear patterns behind
when a game business goes well and when it starts to fail.

Here, I want to summarize— as simply as possible —
what I believe are the most important conditions for success in the game business.

When optimization experts become the main decision-makers,
the probability of creating a successful new IP goes down.
They are often strong at improving existing assets,
but weaker at searching for the next potential hit.

What makes a game a hit is creative instinct.
What helps it grow is numbers.
Companies begin to die when they reverse that order.

Of course, this does not mean numbers are unnecessary.
Numbers can help identify areas where a hit might exist.

But entertainment cannot be created from numbers alone.
Because the core of entertainment is moving human emotion.

When emotion is treated only as data,
the things that matter most are often labeled
“wasteful” or “inefficient,”
and then removed in the name of optimization.

That is why success in the game business depends on
creative-first × marketing-driven thinking.
What matters is the ability to understand both instinct and numbers,
and to move them in the right order.

In reality, very few people can handle both
within the same decision-making process.

Toroneko helps bridge that gap
and think through what a business needs to decide first.

Whether it is a new project, live operations, marketing, or business planning,
if you are unsure where to start, feel free to reach out.

Contact
contact_us@gamemarketinglab.com

Even if what you have right now is just a problem you are struggling with
or a situation that still feels unclear, that is completely fine.

I don’t “run things” for you.

I’m not here to execute or operate work on your behalf.

Instead, I work with you to think through questions like:

“Are we moving in the right direction?”
“What should we not do right now?”

A bit of background

Over the years, I’ve been involved in games from planning to launch, live operations, and end-of-service, both from the development side and the marketing / promotion side.

Because of that, I can often anticipate where misalignment happens on the ground—for example:

“This might become a sticking point for the dev team.”
“This will likely be difficult for marketing to turn into numbers.”

I don’t assume I “know everything” and make confident declarations.
I prefer to assume I don’t know, confirm things one by one, and turn them into better decision inputs. That distance matters to me.

When people usually reach out

I often get messages at moments like these:

“We’re not sure whether to move forward with a new concept.”
“We’re developing a game, but something feels off.”
“We’re tracking KPIs, but we can’t organize what to do next.”
“We’re worried whether the new title will work.”
“We’re struggling with how to reboot an existing game.”
“Meetings are increasing, but decisions aren’t moving forward.”
“Internal opinions are split.”

In other words, most people aren’t asking me to “give the answer.”
They’re asking for help organizing the inputs needed to decide.

How I work (important)

First, the basics:

I do not handle execution or ongoing operations.
I do not work on-site or join day-to-day work.
I work primarily remotely and asynchronously.

Instead, after reviewing your materials and the current state of the game, I will return comments on:

points that look concerning
risks that are easy to overlook
priorities
what to not do (and why)

A quick note

Some teams worry that involving an external person might make the team’s work harder.

I understand that concern well—I’ve been on both sides many times, so I’m very conscious of it.

I won’t step into execution.
I also won’t否定 your team’s way of working or decision-making.

My role is to help organize assumptions and priorities—so the team can keep being the main actor, while the work becomes easier to move forward.

What changes?

What I often hear afterward is:

“We have fewer things to do.”
“Decisions became faster.”
“It’s easier to explain internally.”
“We reduced unnecessary rework.”

Nothing flashy happens—but the business becomes far less shaky.

What I can and cannot do

I can help with:

structural reviews of planning / development / live operations
organizing marketing strategy and KPI design
identifying business risks and failure factors
decision-making “sparring” (structured brainstorming for decisions)

I cannot help with:

execution, operations, or project management
ad buying / ad operations / analytics work on your behalf
attending meetings continuously

If what you’re looking for doesn’t match this, you don’t need to force a conversation.

Fees

People ask about this often, so I’ll share it upfront.

As a guideline:

JPY 500,000 to 1,200,000 per month
minimum commitment: 3 months

If the scope is limited, I can also propose a lighter plan with a narrower range of involvement.

Also, any work I support will not be published as case studies or used in sales materials.
I accept engagements on a strictly confidential basis.

About Toroneko (briefly)

A quick summary:

25+ years in the game industry
experience across console and mobile games as marketing / producer
involved in 60+ titles
(total across console + live online games; counted from my time at major game companies)
experienced the full cycle from planning to launch to end-of-service

For detailed background, reading a few of my articles will probably give you the picture.

Since founding Toroneko Marketing Inc. in 2020, I’ve supported many game companies.