As Area 35 gears up for the release of Tiny Metal 2, the studio plans to use the tactical simulation game to put a spotlight on its wider animation and audio production capabilities.
Area 35 founder and chief executive officer Hiroaki Yura outlined the strategy in an interview with GamesBeat at Tokyo Game Show 2026. Yura described Tiny Metal 2 as the first full-fledged sequel to Area 35’s 2017 title Tiny Metal, with the upcoming release benefiting from Area 35’s expansion into a company of over 300 employees over the past decade, with co-development projects across triple-A games and prominent anime series like “Demon Slayer” and “Dragon Ball.”
“So, we’ve got all these resources and we want to put it into the game,” Yura said. “We love our game, and our IP is what we really want to do, so that’s what happened.”
Tiny Metal is Area 35’s first homegrown property to go transmedia following the company’s July 2026 announcement of an official anime adaptation titled “Tiny Metal: Zero Line.” Yura said his company had recruited a range of top-level creative talent to make the series, including Michael Chu, who previously served as the lead writer for Overwatch at Activision Blizzard.
“Michael loves Japan; he almost lives here a third of his time, and he has a lot of friends here,” Yura said. “Because of that, we asked him to write the plot.”
Given it’s been almost a decade since the first Tiny Metal game came out, Yura said Area 35 plans to use transmedia opportunities like the anime series as a marketing vehicle to introduce the game and its fictional world to new audiences. Tiny Metal 2 features numerous references to story elements and characters from the first game in the series, although Yura made it clear that players do not need to be familiar with the first Tiny Metal game to understand Tiny Metal 2.
“It’s very hard for us to get the word out. Every time we lifted a finger 10 years ago, everything became news — but now, we put out a press release, and nobody really cares,” Yura said.
“So, that’s why we’re doing the anime.”
Yura said social gameplay is a crucial element of Tiny Metal 2, flagging the addition of a couch co-op mode as one of the biggest gameplay updates between the game and its predecessor.
“I do think the physical aspect of being in the same room together — being able to talk and do communication other than just words — is really important,” he said. “That’s why we put in couch co-op.”
Yura also teased Area 35’s plans to incorporate crossplay features into the console release of Tiny Metal 2, though he stressed that this was theoretical, given the company hasn’t yet announced an official console release for the game. At the moment, Tiny Metal 2 is slated to come out on Steam in spring 2027.
“We’ve already announced on Steam that we’re using EOS [Epic Online Services], and EOS allows us to connect to everybody,” Yura said.