Rogue Company’s Season 3 Kyoto Job supported by KPMG

The third season of Hi-Rez Studios’ Rogue Company series is set in the Japanese cultural centre of Kyoto – the result of a collaboration between the city and games company supported by KPMG.

After first hitting the market in late 2020, the Rogue Company series by US games publisher Hi-Rez Studios recently released its ‘Season 3 – The Kyoto Job’, with a strong local cultural focus. The first-of-its-kind collaboration by an overseas video games company and Japanese local government was facilitated by the consulting wing of professional services firm KPMG.

“This season – the Kyoto Job – has much more of a theme than a narrative this time around,” writes gaming news and reviews website Attack of the Fanboy. “Everything is much more culturally inspired by Japan, given the inclusion of the new map. The new battle pass is also live, sporting 50 new rewards like character skins, weapon wraps, emotes, Rogue Bucks, account boosters, profile titles, and profile icons.”

For the uninitiated, Rogue Company is an online multiplayer tactical shooter available on various platforms, which has since its first instalment in late 2020 attracted some 20 million users from all over the globe – although to date they have mainly been concentrated in North America and Europe. According to press materials, Hi-Rez has long had its eye on the Japanese gaming market, the third largest in the world.

Yet KPMG notes that while Japan may represent the world’s third-largest gaming market behind China and the US, which further driven by the public health response to Covid-19 is now worth more than 2 trillion yen (or over US$20 billion according to some sources), the country’s unique consumer tastes and business customs generally present as obstacles for foreign companies looking to crack that market.

As such, and with the historic cultural capital of Japan suffering from a sharp decline in tourism due to the global pandemic (according to data from Mastercard, Kyoto was previously among the top half a dozen or so visited destinations in the world), KPMG saw an opportunity which could mutually benefit both parties, and proposed and helped guide the collaboration between the city of Kyoto and Hi-Rez.

Further to enhancing Kyoto’s international appeal to tourists and both the local market entry prospects and content produced by Hi-Rez, KPMG says that part proceeds from the third season of the game – which incorporates Kyoto-themed maps and items – will go towards supporting the region’s UN Sustainable Development Goals, namely through helping to protect Kyoto’s nature, landscape, and culture.

Rogue Company

As per its wiki fan-page, “Rogue Company is a top-secret syndicate of elite mercenaries around the globe. To most of the world, the elusive mercenaries are a rumour at best. However, to those in the know, Rogue Company operatives are indispensable to solving the world’s deadliest and most challenging problems. Rogue Company contends with nefarious people and organisations, including the infamous JACKAL.”