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is a Japanese multinational
video game A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual fe ...
publisher Publishing is the activities of making information, literature, music, software, and other content, physical or digital, available to the public for sale or free of charge. Traditionally, the term publishing refers to the creation and distribu ...
, and the video game branch of the wider
Bandai Namco Holdings (commonly known as and formerly Namco Bandai until 2015, also known as Bandai Namco Group,) is a Japanese mass media and entertainment Conglomerate (company), conglomerate founded in 2005 by the merger of Namco and Bandai. The company specia ...
group. Founded in 2006 as it is the successor to
Namco was a Japanese multinational video game and entertainment company founded in 1955. It operated video arcades and amusement parks globally, and produced video games, films, toys, and arcade cabinets. Namco was one of the most influential c ...
's home and arcade video game business, as well as
Bandai is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational toy manufacturer and distributor headquartered in Taitō, Taitō, Tokyo. Its international branches, Bandai Namco Toys & Collectables America and Bandai UK, are respectively headquartered ...
's former equivalent division. Development operations were spun off into a new company in 2012, Namco Bandai Studios, now called
Bandai Namco Studios is a Japanese video game development, video game developer headquartered in Kōtō, Tokyo and founded in 2012, with studios in Singapore and Malaysia. Bandai Namco Studios is a subsidiary of Bandai Namco Entertainment (formerly Bandai Namco Games ...
. Bandai Namco Entertainment owns several multi-million video game franchises, including ''
Pac-Man ''Pac-Man,'' originally called in Japan, is a 1980 maze video game developed and published by Namco for arcades. In North America, the game was released by Midway Manufacturing as part of its licensing agreement with Namco America. The pla ...
'', ''
Tekken is a Japanese media franchise centered on a series of fighting games developed and published by Bandai Namco Entertainment (formerly Namco). The franchise also includes film and print adaptations. The main games in the series follow the events ...
'', ''
Soulcalibur is a fighting game franchise developed by Bandai Namco Studios and published by Bandai Namco Entertainment. There are a total of seven main installments and various media spin-offs, including music albums and a series of manga books in the ...
'', '' Tales'', ''
Ace Combat is an Arcade video game, arcade-style Combat flight simulation game, combat flight simulation video game series by Project Aces, an internal development team of Bandai Namco Entertainment, formerly Namco. Debuting in 1995 with ''Air Combat'' fo ...
'', ''
Taiko no Tatsujin is a Japanese video game series created by Namco. In the games, players simulate playing a taiko drum in time with music. The series has released games for the Arcade video game, arcade and for console and mobile platforms including PlayStation ...
'', ''
The Idolmaster is a Japanese media franchise that began in 2005 with a Life simulation game, raising simulation and Rhythm game, rhythm video game series created by Bandai Namco Entertainment (formerly Namco). The series primarily centers on the career of a pr ...
'', ''
Ridge Racer is a series of racing video games created by Namco and owned by Bandai Namco Entertainment. The first game, ''Ridge Racer (1993 video game), Ridge Racer'' (1993), was originally released in arcades for the Namco System 22 hardware, later ported ...
'' and ''
Dark Souls is a dark fantasy action role-playing game series developed by FromSoftware and published by Bandai Namco Entertainment. Created by Hidetaka Miyazaki, the series began with the release of ''Dark Souls (video game), Dark Souls'' (2011) and has ...
''.
Pac-Man ''Pac-Man,'' originally called in Japan, is a 1980 maze video game developed and published by Namco for arcades. In North America, the game was released by Midway Manufacturing as part of its licensing agreement with Namco America. The pla ...
himself serves as the official mascot of the company. The company also owns the licenses to several Japanese media franchises, such as '' Shonen Jump'', ''
Gundam is a Japanese military science fiction media franchise. Created by Yoshiyuki Tomino and Sunrise (now Bandai Namco Filmworks), the franchise features giant robots, or mecha, with the name "Gundam". The franchise began on April 7, 1979, with ...
'', ''
Kamen Rider The , also known as ''Masked Rider Series'' (until ''Kamen Rider Decade, Decade'' and except Thailand), is a Japanese superhero fiction, superhero media franchise consisting of tokusatsu television programs, films, manga, and anime, created by ...
'', ''
Super Sentai The is a Japanese superhero team media franchise consisting of television series and films produced by Toei Company and Bandai, and aired by TV Asahi. The shows are of the '' tokusatsu'' genre, featuring live action characters and colorfu ...
'', ''
Sword Art Online is a Japanese light novel series written by Reki Kawahara and illustrated by abec. The series takes place in the 2020s and focuses on protagonists Kazuto "Kirito" Kirigaya and Asuna Yuuki as they play through various virtual re ...
'', and the ''
Ultra Series The , also known as ''Ultraman'', is a Japanese science fiction media franchise owned and produced by Tsuburaya Productions, which began with the television series ''Ultra Q'' in 1966. The franchise has expanded into many television shows, fil ...
''.


History

In January 2006, Bandai Namco Holdings Inc. announced the establishment of Namco Bandai Games Inc. In March 2006, to be formed by merging Bandai and Namco’s home console game content, arcade game, mobile contents business and part of its new business division. Both companies in a joint statement cited Japan's decreasing birth rates and advancements in technology as the reason for the merge, and to increase their relevance to newer audiences. Both companies worked independently under the newly formed Bandai Namco Holdings until 31 March 2006, when their video game operations were merged to form Namco Bandai Games. On 1 April 2008,
Banpresto (formerly Coreland Technology Inc.) was a Japanese video game developer and video game publisher, publisher headquartered in Shinagawa, Tokyo. It had a branch in Hong Kong named Banpresto H.K., which was headquartered in the New Territories. Ba ...
's video game operations were absorbed by Namco Bandai Games. On 1 April 2009, Bandai Networks, Namco Bandai's mobile phone business, was dissolved and absorbed into Namco Bandai Games. Just prior to the release of ''
Afro Samurai is a Japanese '' seinen'' ''dōjinshi'' manga series written and illustrated by manga artist Takashi Okazaki. It was originally serialized irregularly in the avant-garde ''dōjinshi'' manga magazine '' Nou Nou Hau'' from November 1998 to ...
'' at the end of 2008, the company announced the Surge publishing label. The new label was an attempt at creating a separate identity for the company, aimed at a Western audience desiring more mature themes in-game content. Following ''Afro'', early press materials indicated that '' Dead to Rights: Retribution'' and ''
Splatterhouse is a beat 'em up arcade game developed and published by Namco in 1988. It was the first in a series of games released in home console and personal computer formats. This game would later spawn the parody '' Splatterhouse: Wanpaku Graffiti'', the ...
'' would also be released under the Surge label, but neither game ultimately did; both were released with a retro Namco label instead to reflect the series' legacy, the Surge branding would be phased out following the release of ''Afro Samurai''. In 2010, Namco Bandai Games entered the ''
Guinness World Records ''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a British reference book published annually, list ...
'' as the company that released the most TV commercials for the same product, a
Nintendo DS The is a foldable handheld game console produced by Nintendo, released globally across 2004 and 2005. The DS, an initialism for "Developers' System" or "Dual Screen", introduced distinctive new features to handheld games: two LCD screens worki ...
game called '' Solatorobo: Red the Hunter''. They created 100 versions of the ad as the game consists of 100 chapters. In early 2011,
Namco Networks Namco Networks was an American developer and publisher of video games for mobile phones, based in San Jose, California. The company was founded on January 1, 2006, as the mobile phone division of Namco America, and produced video games for mobile ...
was absorbed into Namco Bandai Games America, effectively consolidating Namco Bandai's American console, handheld, and mobile video game development operations. On 2 April 2012, Namco Bandai Games spun off its development operations into a new company called Namco Bandai Studios. The new company was spurred by Namco Bandai's interest in faster development times and tighter cohesion between disparate development teams. It comprises approximately 1,000 employees, who were already part of Namco Bandai. In March 2013, Namco Bandai Games established two new game studios. The first, Namco Bandai Studios Singapore, is Namco Bandai's "leading development center" in Asia and develops game content for the Asia Pacific market. The second studio, Namco Bandai Studios Vancouver, works on online social games and game content development for North America and Europe, and is part of the Center for Digital Media (CDM). In July 2013,
Namco Bandai Partners Namco Bandai Partners S.A.S. (formerly Distribution Partners SAS) was a video game distribution company that was an amalgamation of several former Atari SA (formerly known as Infogrames Entertainment SA) offices located in PAL territories, which ...
(NBP), which used to oversee the PAL distribution network since September 2012, merged with Namco Bandai Games Europe (NBGE) in order to push distribution and publishing into one entity, Namco Bandai Games Europe (NBGE), which is now known as Bandai Namco Entertainment Europe (BNEE). The Australian subsidiary of BNEE, Bandai Namco Entertainment Australia, aside from acting as the publisher and distributor for Bandai Namco titles in Australia, also publishes and distributes titles in the ANZ region for
Square Enix is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational holding company, video game publisher and entertainment conglomerate. It releases role-playing video game, role-playing game franchises, such as ''Final Fantasy'', ''Dragon Quest'', and '' ...
and
NIS America is a Japanese video game developer and publisher. The company was founded in 1991 and has developed several role-playing video games, most notably the ''Disgaea'' and '' Marl Kingdom'' series. Its mascot is the penguin-like ''Disgaea'' charact ...
amongst others. In 2014, Namco Bandai Games and Namco Bandai Studios became Bandai Namco Games and Bandai Namco Studios, respectively. The change unified the brand internationally in order to increase the "value" and "appeal" of the name. The full company name was changed to Bandai Namco Entertainment on 1 April 2015. On 1 April 2018, the amusement machine business division of Bandai Namco Entertainment was transferred over to sister company Bandai Namco Amusement. In September 2020, Bandai Namco Entertainment Europe and Oceania acquired Canadian video game developer
Reflector Entertainment ''Unknown 9: Awakening'' is a 2024 action-adventure game developed by Canadian studio Reflector Entertainment and published by Bandai Namco Entertainment. Set in India in the early 20th century, the game focuses on a woman with magical powers ...
. The company acquired minority stake in Limbic Entertainment in February 2021 and became the majority stakeholder in October 2022. In March 2021, Bandai Namco Amusement announced that withdrawal of the arcade game facility business in North America due to closure of various gaming facilities from the
COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...
. Despite the announcement, Bandai Namco Amusement America was not affected by this withdrawal. In April 2021, Bandai Namco Entertainment America announced it would close its Santa Clara office and move to a new Southern California office. In June 2022, Bandai Namco Entertainment and ILCA. Inc announced the establishment of Bandai Namco Aces, with 51% of the shares owned by Bandai Namco and 49% of the shares owned by ILCA. This new development company will be responsible for the development of AAA titles, including ''
Ace Combat is an Arcade video game, arcade-style Combat flight simulation game, combat flight simulation video game series by Project Aces, an internal development team of Bandai Namco Entertainment, formerly Namco. Debuting in 1995 with ''Air Combat'' fo ...
''. On November 20 2024, Bandai Namco Entertainment announced the merger of Bandai Namco Online into the company, dissolving the subsidiary as a result with the employees joining the parent company. This came after the disappointing results of Blue Protocol and Gundam Evolution, games that performed below expectations with the dissolution set to be completed by April 2025.


Corporate structure

Bandai Namco Entertainment was originally headquartered in
Shinagawa, Tokyo is a Special wards of Tokyo, special ward in the Tokyo, Tokyo Metropolis in Japan. The Ward refers to itself as Shinagawa City in English. The Ward is home to ten embassies. , the Ward had an estimated population of 380,293 and a population d ...
, moving their operations to
Minato-ku, Tokyo is a special ward of Tokyo, Japan. It is also called Minato City in English. Minato was formed in 1947 as a merger of Akasaka, Azabu and Shiba wards following Tokyo City's transformation into Tokyo Metropolis. The modern Minato ward exhibi ...
in February 2016. The North American and European divisions respectively in
Irvine, California Irvine () is a Planned community, planned city in central Orange County, California, United States, in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. It was named in 1888 for the landowner James Irvine. The Irvine Company started developing the area in the ...
, as Bandai Namco Entertainment America, and in
Lyon, France Lyon (Franco-Provençal: ''Liyon'') is a city in France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of the French Alps, southeast of Paris, north of Marseille, southwest of Geneva, Switzerland, north ...
, as Bandai Namco Entertainment Europe. Divisions have also been established in
mainland China "Mainland China", also referred to as "the Chinese mainland", is a Geopolitics, geopolitical term defined as the territory under direct administration of the People's Republic of China (PRC) in the aftermath of the Chinese Civil War. In addit ...
,
Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...
, and
Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...
. Most of the Non-American and Japanese divisions were formerly distribution arms of
Atari Atari () is a brand name that has been owned by several entities since its inception in 1972. It is currently owned by French holding company Atari SA (formerly Infogrames) and its focus is on "video games, consumer hardware, licensing and bl ...
until the company sold them off to Bandai Namco in July 2009 alongside their Distribution Partners unit, which was effectively renamed
Namco Bandai Partners Namco Bandai Partners S.A.S. (formerly Distribution Partners SAS) was a video game distribution company that was an amalgamation of several former Atari SA (formerly known as Infogrames Entertainment SA) offices located in PAL territories, which ...
until being folded in 2013. Bandai Namco Entertainment is the core development division of the Bandai Namco Group's "Content
Strategic Business Unit A strategic business unit (SBU) in business strategic management, is a profit center which focuses on product offering and market segment. SBUs typically have a discrete marketing plan, analysis of competition, and marketing campaign, even though ...
" (Content SBU), and the main video game branch of Bandai Namco Holdings.


Software development and subsidiaries

*
Bandai Namco Studios is a Japanese video game development, video game developer headquartered in Kōtō, Tokyo and founded in 2012, with studios in Singapore and Malaysia. Bandai Namco Studios is a subsidiary of Bandai Namco Entertainment (formerly Bandai Namco Games ...
: established in April 2012 as a separate company — Bandai Namco Studios creates video games for home consoles, handheld systems, mobile devices and arcade hardware, while Bandai Namco Entertainment handles the managing, marketing and publishing of these products. Bandai Namco Studios also produces music and videos based on its properties and has development studios in the European, Asian, and Americas offices. * Acquired studios:
D3 Publisher is a Japanese video game developer and video game publisher, publisher founded on February 5, 1992. The company is known for the ''Simple (video game series), Simple'' series of budget-priced video games. Their games have been released for the G ...
, Reflector Entertainment, Limbic Entertainment


See also

*
List of Bandai Namco video game franchises Bandai Namco Holdings is a Japanese holdings company, based in Tokyo, that specializes in video games, anime is a Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside ...
*
List of Bandai Namco video games This is a list of games developed and/or published by Bandai Namco Entertainment and generally covers titles released after March 31, 2006. Games published by Bandai or Namco prior to the merger are not listed here. Video games Mobile game ...


Notes


References


External links

* {{Authority control Bandai Namco Holdings subsidiaries Japanese brands Japanese companies established in 2006 Multinational companies headquartered in Japan Publishing companies established in 2006 Software companies based in Tokyo Video game companies established in 2006 Video game companies of Japan Video game development companies Video game publishers Film production companies of Japan