On Christmas Day 2025, Natsume Atari dropped an announcement that left gaming fans scratching their heads. The Japanese game developer is changing its name to Winning Entertainment Group, effective January 1, 2026. And while corporate rebrands happen all the time, this one feels particularly odd given that most people don’t even know who Natsume Atari is in the first place.
If you’re confused about the name, you’re not alone. Natsume Atari is not the Natsume that published Harvest Moon in North America. It’s also not the Atari that made Pong and Asteroids. It’s a completely separate Japanese company that just happens to share names with two other famous gaming companies, and now it’s rebranding to something that sounds like it should be selling scratch-off tickets.
Who Is Natsume Atari Anyway
Natsume Co., Ltd. was founded in Japan in 1987 as a video game developer. In 1995, its American division split off to become an independent company called Natsume Inc., which is the publisher you probably associate with games like Harvest Moon and Reel Fishing. Both companies kept the Natsume name in their respective countries, creating decades of confusion.
The Japanese Natsume went on to found a pachinko company called Atari Inc. in 2002. Not the Atari you’re thinking of. This was a completely separate company specializing in slot and pinball machines for the Japanese gambling market. In 2013, the two companies merged, and Natsume Co., Ltd. became Natsume Atari. So yes, this is a Japanese company with no connection to the American Natsume or the famous American Atari, despite sharing both names.
If your head is spinning, that’s understandable. The important thing to know is that Natsume Atari is the parent company of Tengo Project, a development studio that has quietly been making some of the best retro remakes in the industry over the past several years.
The Tengo Project Connection
Here’s where things get interesting for gamers who actually care about quality. Tengo Project is composed of three veteran developers who worked at Natsume during its glory days in the 16-bit era. They’ve been creating what can only be described as miracle remakes of classic games, taking forgotten or underappreciated titles and transforming them into must-play experiences.
Their track record includes Wild Guns Reloaded, a total remake of the SNES cult classic that added new characters and modernized the run-and-gun gameplay. The Ninja Saviors: Return of the Warriors completely rebuilt a Super Famicom beat-em-up from the ground up, adding two new playable characters including a boss-sized character that takes up most of the screen. Pocky and Rocky Reshrined gave the beloved scrolling shooter a stunning visual overhaul with quality-of-life improvements throughout.
Their most recent release, Shadow of the Ninja: Reborn, takes this approach even further. The original was a lean but difficult NES hack-and-slash platformer from 1990. Tengo Project didn’t just enhance it. They essentially remade it as a Super Famicom era game, transforming the basic skeleton into something that feels like a lost classic from 1994. One reviewer compared it to remaking the original Mega Man in the style and gameplay of Mega Man X, which gives you a sense of the ambition involved.
These aren’t simple upscales or lazy remasters. Tengo Project treats remakes the way John Carpenter treated The Thing, taking the core concept and making something that honors the original while being vastly superior in execution. Their pixel art is sumptuous, their soundtracks are arranged by the original composers, and the gameplay refinements make these games feel modern despite their retro aesthetics.
The Bahrain Connection
So why the name change? According to the official announcement, Natsume Atari is retiring both the Natsume and Atari names to mark a fresh chapter as a leading global entertainment company. That sounds like standard corporate speak, but there’s more to the story lurking beneath the surface.
In March 2025, Tamkeen, an organization connected to the Bahrain Economic Development Board, made significant investments in Natsume Atari. The company has been collaborating with Bahrain on a training program where Bahraini developers work at Natsume Atari’s Japanese offices for a year, learning game development, production, and marketing.
Three Bahraini trainees recently developed a casual mobile game called Ship of Time that was showcased at the Bahrain Pavilion at Expo 2025 in Osaka. The game blends themes of tradition with forward-looking development, letting players navigate a traditional Bahraini boat through a reimagined Bahrain Bay while learning about the country’s investment and business opportunities. It’s essentially a promotional game for Bahrain’s economic potential.
Reddit users speculate the name change stems from this Bahraini investment and partnership. Whether the Bahraini government suggested the new name or Natsume Atari leadership decided they needed a title that resonates with wealthy international investors, the timing is suspicious. The shift to foreign ownership and influence has fans wondering what this means for Tengo Project’s future and creative independence.
Why Winning Entertainment Group Sounds Terrible
Let’s address the elephant in the room. Winning Entertainment Group is an objectively bad name. It sounds like a holding company for casinos, not a video game developer with a legacy dating back to 1987. The name evokes gambling, pachinko parlors, and sketchy mobile games filled with loot boxes, not the kind of artful retro remakes Tengo Project creates.
One Reddit user nailed it by saying the new name feels unremarkable and standard, especially compared to Natsume Atari, which evoked the feeling of a company name you might encounter in an 80s futuristic setting reminiscent of Blade Runner. There was character and history in that name, even if it caused confusion. Winning Entertainment Group sounds like it was generated by a corporate branding algorithm told to maximize SEO for gambling-adjacent entertainment ventures.
Another commenter joked they were going for a Charlie Sheen vibe, referencing his infamous winning rant from 2011. While that’s probably not the intention, it’s hard to shake the association once it’s been pointed out. The name screams confidence to the point of absurdity, like someone trying way too hard to project success.
To be fair, Natsume Atari does operate in both video games and pachinko gambling machines, so maybe Winning Entertainment Group better reflects that dual business model. But for fans who care about Tengo Project’s remakes and don’t particularly care about Japanese slot machines, the rebrand feels like a step in the wrong direction.
What This Means for Gamers
The good news is that Tengo Project remains a subsidiary of the newly named Winning Entertainment Group, and there’s no indication their creative direction will change. The team has already teased their next project might be Shatterhand, another NES cult classic that could benefit from their remake treatment. Given their track record, fans have reason to be optimistic about future releases regardless of what the parent company calls itself.
The concern is whether increased foreign investment and a shift toward global expansion will pressure Tengo Project to chase broader markets and monetization strategies. Their current model involves making niche remakes of games most people have never heard of, selling them at reasonable prices without aggressive DLC or microtransactions. It’s a business model that works because the team is small and passionate, not because it generates massive profits.
If Winning Entertainment Group starts pushing for live service models, battle passes, or free-to-play mobile adaptations of classic games, the magic could disappear quickly. Tengo Project’s remakes work because they’re labors of love created by people who genuinely care about preserving and improving gaming history. Corporate interference from investors looking for higher returns could ruin that.
The Name Confusion Gets Worse
Just to make things even more confusing, Natsume Inc., the American publisher of Harvest Moon, also has a Japanese division called Natsume Inc. Japan that has no connection to Natsume Atari or the soon-to-be Winning Entertainment Group. So we currently have three separate entities with Natsume in their names, one of which is about to rebrand but will still be confused with the other two by people who don’t follow corporate genealogy charts.
For fans trying to support Tengo Project specifically, the best advice is to ignore the parent company drama entirely and just look for the Tengo Project name on game releases. They’re the ones doing the actual development work, and their remakes speak for themselves regardless of who signs the paychecks.
FAQs
Is Winning Entertainment Group the same as Natsume Inc. that published Harvest Moon?
No. Natsume Inc. is a completely separate American company that split from the Japanese Natsume in 1995. Winning Entertainment Group, formerly Natsume Atari, is the Japanese company with no connection to the American Natsume or Harvest Moon.
Is this the same Atari that made classic arcade games?
No. Natsume Atari’s Atari division was a pachinko company founded in 2002 in Japan. It has no connection to the famous American Atari that made Pong, Asteroids, and the Atari 2600 console.
When does the name change to Winning Entertainment Group take effect?
The rebrand becomes official on January 1, 2026. The announcement was made on December 25, 2025, giving people about a week’s notice before the change.
Why is Natsume Atari changing its name?
Officially, the company says it’s marking a fresh chapter and commitment to becoming a leading global entertainment company. Unofficially, the change appears connected to investments from Bahrain and partnerships aimed at expanding into Middle Eastern markets.
What is Tengo Project?
Tengo Project is a development studio within Natsume Atari (soon to be Winning Entertainment Group) that creates high-quality remakes of classic retro games. Their releases include Wild Guns Reloaded, The Ninja Saviors: Return of the Warriors, Pocky and Rocky Reshrined, and Shadow of the Ninja: Reborn.
Will the name change affect Tengo Project’s games?
There’s no indication the rebrand will impact Tengo Project’s creative direction or development process. They remain a subsidiary of the parent company and are expected to continue making the same style of retro remakes.
Who chose the name Winning Entertainment Group?
The company hasn’t disclosed who selected the new name. Given the timing of Bahraini investments, speculation suggests either Bahraini stakeholders had input or Natsume Atari leadership chose a name they thought would appeal to international investors.
Can I still buy Tengo Project games after the rebrand?
Yes. The name change affects the parent company, not the games themselves. Tengo Project titles will continue to be available on platforms like Steam, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation, and Xbox under the Tengo Project developer name.
The Bottom Line
Natsume Atari becoming Winning Entertainment Group is the kind of corporate rebrand that makes sense to executives in boardrooms and confuses everyone else. The new name sounds worse, loses the historical connection to the company’s gaming heritage, and creates the impression of a gambling operation rather than a respected game developer.
For most gamers, this news wouldn’t matter except for one crucial detail. Winning Entertainment Group is the parent company of Tengo Project, which means the future of some of the best retro remakes in the industry is tied to whatever direction this newly rebranded entity decides to pursue. If foreign investment and global expansion ambitions lead to creative interference, we could lose one of the few studios still making games that honor gaming’s past with genuine artistry and care.
The hope is that Winning Entertainment Group will continue treating Tengo Project as a prestige division that operates with creative freedom, similar to how larger publishers sometimes maintain boutique studios for niche projects. The fear is that new stakeholders will push for monetization schemes and market chasing that destroys what makes Tengo special in the first place.
Time will tell which direction this goes. In the meantime, if you’ve never played a Tengo Project remake, now might be the perfect time to check out Shadow of the Ninja: Reborn, Pocky and Rocky Reshrined, or any of their other releases. These games represent a philosophy of game development that prioritizes craft and respect for source material over chasing trends and maximizing profits. That approach feels increasingly rare in modern gaming, and it would be a shame to lose it to corporate rebranding and global expansion strategies.
As for the name, well, we’ll probably keep calling them Natsume Atari out of habit just like people still call Twitter by its original name. Because Winning Entertainment Group? That’s just not happening.