Namco and Bandai Integrate in America

January 4, 2006, 1:06 pm EST
Total comments: 6

Namco Hometek's headquarters becomes the base for Namco Bandai Games America.

Namco and Bandai Officially Integrate In North America, Creating NAMCO BANDAI Games America Inc.

Joint North American Operations Now Based In Santa Clara , California

Santa Clara, Calif., ( January 4, 2006) -- NAMCO HOMETEK INC. and Bandai Games Inc. today announced that the integration of their two companies is now complete. The two companies are now officially known as NAMCO BANDAI Games America Inc. in North America . The company now operates out of the Santa Clara, California facility, formerly held by NAMCO HOMETEK INC.

Effective January 2, 2006 , NAMCO BANDAI Holdings (USA) Inc. (formerly called NAMCO HOLDING CORP.) owns all of the BANDAI NAMCO Group US subsidiaries including Bandai America Inc. (Toy), Bandai Entertainment, Inc.(Visual/DVD ), NAMCO AMERICA INC. (Arcade machine), NAMCO CYBERTAINMENT INC.(

Arcade facility), NAMCO NETWORKS AMERICA INC. (Mobile games) and NAMCO BANDAI Games America Inc.(Video games).

“We are thrilled that the integration of the two North American entities is now complete and we are all now under one roof,” said Genichi Ito, the new President and CEO of NAMCO BANDAI Games America Inc. “We are proud to be part of the new NAMCO BANDAI Games America family and look forward to a successful year ahead."

“The integration of our two companies has been a team effort over the last several months,” said Naruo Uchida, who is joining from Bandai Games Inc. and now serving as the Corporate Planning Senior Vice President of NAMCO BANDAI Games America Inc. “We have worked together to fuse the many strengths each of our companies have to form one strong North American operation.”

The integration brings together two of the most well-respected Japanese-owned interactive entertainment companies. With brands including Pac-Man®, Tamagotchi®, SoulCalibur®, Naruto and Tekken®, NAMCO BANDAI Games America Inc. ’s separate brands now fall under one strong brand, with many new properties and offerings also on the horizon.

Bandai Games Inc. is a subsidiary of Bandai America Inc. and a leading publisher of interactive entertainment software for next generation game consoles. Unique characters and stimulating game experiences highlight Bandai Games Inc. distinctive product lineup which include hit properties such as Inuyasha and Digimon. The company was formerly headquartered in Cypress, California . NAMCO HOMETEK INC. is the U.S. consumer division of NAMCO LIMITED, a Tokyo-based world leader in the

high-tech entertainment industry, and is an award-winning video games publisher for next generation game consoles.

Talkback

KDR_11kJanuary 04, 2006

I smell an onslaught of awful licensed games just over the horizon.

Bartman3010January 05, 2006

I have a horrible feeling that Bandai will just kick the Namco part of the name off and...well. Come out with a lot of crappy games for the rest of the span.

This was a horrible merger.

PaleMike Gamin, Contributing EditorJanuary 05, 2006

Be a little optimistic guys. If anything it shows that bandai is interested in releasing "good" games using their license. Why would they drop namco out of their name? Namco is a huge name.

Lets look at a Bandai property in a game...

Inu Yasha Feudal Combat. Well, it sold fairly well, despite terrible reviews, because many people like InuYasha. As you probably know, it was a 3D fighter.

Well now, maybe if the partnership with Namco came up before that game was made, it would have been done using the SCII/III engine by Namco themselves. How is this a bad thing?

It's a proven development/publishing house teaming up with a company that has the rights to many popular IPs. If anything licensed games should improve. Remember when Capcom made Duck Tales for the NES?

All that said, maybe I'm not fully understanding the terms of this merger, but it seems like a good thing to me.