Koei Tecmo Holdings Co., Ltd. is a Japanese video game and anime holding company created in 2009 by the merger of Koei and Tecmo. Koei Tecmo Holdings owns several companies, the biggest one of those being its flagship game developer and publisher Koei Tecmo Games that was founded in 1978 as Koei. Koei Europe was the first subsidiary to change its name to Tecmo Koei Europe, Ltd and to release video games under the new moniker. In January 2010, Tecmo, Inc. and Koei Corporation followed suit by merging to form Tecmo Koei America Corporation. On April 1, 2010, Tecmo was declared disbanded in Japan. Its sister company Koei survived but was renamed Tecmo Koei Games and is now the main publishing arm of the group in Japan. The former development divisions of Tecmo and Koei were briefly spun-off as separate companies in March 2010, but folded into Tecmo Koei Games in April 2011.