Bandai buys Namco

Brian · Post by **Brian** » Mon May 02, 2005 3:39 pm

Bandia agreed to buy Namco for $1.7b.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/05/02/ ... bandai.php

Turrican · Post by **Turrican** » Mon May 02, 2005 3:50 pm

"The new company, to be called Namco Bandai Holdings, would be Japan's No. 2 maker of toys and video games, behind Sega Sammy Holdings"

I find quite scary that Sega and Sammy merged and are the first toy industry in Japan, and yet Sega can't seem to exit from its creative crisis. These merges can help their wallets, but they apparently have no effect on software's quality.

Same with Square-Enix. Square was the absolute King during Psone days, what now? Their recent releases suck big, and FFXII is MIA.

Specineff · Post by **Specineff** » Mon May 02, 2005 6:04 pm

NO! NO! NO! NO! NO!

I just hope they don't have much of a say on which games Namco can and cannot produce. Otherwise we're going to see Tekken 7: Digimon Edition, Power Rangers Super Duper Ultra Gee-Willikers Action Protozooic Endoplasmic Force VS Soul Calibur and similar mass market stuff.

Don't dare to mess with Klonoa, you jerks.... ggggggrrrrrrr.

Ganelon · Post by **Ganelon** » Mon May 02, 2005 7:52 pm

Well, considering Namco is doing just fine as a business unlike Sega, I doubt Bandai will take as much control.

Anyway, this could create a super all-out Namco x Bandai, which could be the end of all SRPGs...

Well, I hesitate seeing them make Gundam games though since their One Year War game on the PS2 supposedly sucked.

Post by **Shatterhand** » Mon May 02, 2005 11:03 pm

Isn't also Squarenix owned by Electronic Arts?

Zach Keene · Post by **Zach Keene** » Mon May 02, 2005 11:06 pm

No.

Square and EA had some sort of distribution deal going where EA would distribute Square's titles in North America (and vice versa in Japan if memory serves.)

Turrican · Post by **Turrican** » Mon May 02, 2005 11:07 pm

Shatterhand wrote:Isn't also Squarenix owned by Electronic Arts?

Not last time I checked. Square did have an agreement with EA for publishing their titles in the US (known as Square-EA) but that ended with the PSone days, iirc.

Super Laydock · Post by **Super Laydock** » Tue May 03, 2005 11:18 am

Now who will buy Capcom?

It can only be a matter of time with this continueing trend, especially since Capcom is a relatively small company (with great franchises)!

My guess: Either Konami, Microsoft or even Nintendo (especially since they are keen on good franchises and good developpers).

Btw: I always thought of Bandain being not large enough for this sort of takeovers and that they were a takeover candidate themselves.

Ganelon · Post by **Ganelon** » Tue May 03, 2005 12:44 pm

Are you kidding? They own pretty much everything that has to do with mecha and licenses to the biggest and best-selling anime hits around.

Capcom really does need to be eaten now though or they might not survive...

Super Laydock · Post by **Super Laydock** » Tue May 03, 2005 12:48 pm

Ganelon wrote:Are you kidding? They own pretty much everything that has to do with mecha and licenses to the biggest and best-selling anime hits around.

Yeah, but not that long ago (2 or 3 years back...) there were strong rumors of Nintendo buying them...
But you're right about them having some VERY succesfull fanchises, just in my perception they never were that big of a player... guess I had a misperception of reality there...

Ganelon · Post by **Ganelon** » Tue May 03, 2005 12:57 pm

It's cool. I never thought that Sammy was a big company at all until they swallowed Sega. I guess you can't underestimate pachinko's popularity, just as you can't underestimate the popularity of a gazillion toys and other merchandise related to anime franchises...

Super Laydock · Post by **Super Laydock** » Tue May 03, 2005 1:38 pm

Turrican wrote:"The new company, to be called Namco Bandai Holdings, would be Japan's No. 2 maker of toys and video games, behind Sega Sammy Holdings"

I find quite scary that Sega and Sammy merged and are the first toy industry in Japan,...

Actually the quote above is debatable and likely just plain wrong!

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=8394

More like 2nd biggest company...
That seems a lot more sensible in my eyes (but I've been wrong on Bandai...).

Turrican · Post by **Turrican** » Tue May 03, 2005 1:47 pm

Super Laydock wrote:Now who will buy Capcom?

My guess: Either Konami, Microsoft or even Nintendo (especially since they are keen on good franchises and good developpers).

I have always seen Konami and Capcom like fierce rivals, so would doubt a merge like that one...

But I can always dream!

Could it give birth to "Conami" (written with blue/yellow logo), or CapKon (red/orange logo) and they would really become the highest quality developer out there!

Post by **BulletMagnet** » Tue May 03, 2005 1:55 pm

...and then we end up with Castlevania vs. Gradius XI Super Champion Turbo Edition.

Dylan1CC · Post by **Dylan1CC** » Tue May 03, 2005 2:29 pm

Ugh. Just say NO to toy makers buying game companies. We don't need more marketing influence overgames than there already is.

This is your favorite game company: holds an egg.

This is your favorite game company on a toy company: takes egg, drops it in cereal box with plastic toy capsule and violently smashes it against a wall.

Turrican · Post by **Turrican** » Tue May 03, 2005 3:18 pm

Dylan1CC wrote:Ugh. Just say NO to toy makers buying game companies. We don't need more marketing influence overgames than there already is.

This is your favorite game company: holds an egg.

This is your favorite game company on a toy company: takes egg, drops it in cereal box with plastic toy capsule and violently smashes it against a wall.

or, in other words:

This is your favorite game company: Metal Gear Solid 3 - Snake Eater.

This is your favorite game company on a toy company: Cy Girls

iatneH · Post by **iatneH** » Tue May 03, 2005 6:47 pm

I hope that namco can make some more tate shooters for the Wonderswan Color...

GaijinPunch · Post by **GaijinPunch** » Tue May 03, 2005 6:48 pm

This is a merger. Nobody's buying anyone. Unless Reuters Japan and about 80 other sites changed their story they posted yesterday morning.

They said basically Gundam is what brought them together when they co-developed One Year War.

Brian · Post by **Brian** » Tue May 03, 2005 9:01 pm

GaijinPunch wrote:This is a merger. Nobody's buying anyone. Unless Reuters Japan and about 80 other sites changed their story they posted yesterday morning.

They said basically Gundam is what brought them together when they co-developed One Year War.

If you click on the link I posted the very first sentence reads -

"Bandai has agreed to buy Namco"

GaijinPunch · Post by **GaijinPunch** » Tue May 03, 2005 11:54 pm

I know. But all the Japanese sources, and even Forbes (who most likely got it from the Japanese sources) say it's a merger. I've looked at a few sources in both langauges and dont' see anything about one buying the other in any of them except for the ITHnews link.

And the Namco Press Release which says it in pretty convoluted Japanese, as it's an official document. None the less, the title of it is 'merger'
http://www.namco.co.jp/pr/release/51/51-050502.pdf

Specineff · Post by **Specineff** » Wed May 04, 2005 6:25 am

Turrican wrote:
Dylan1CC wrote:Ugh. Just say NO to toy makers buying game companies. We don't need more marketing influence overgames than there already is.

This is your favorite game company: holds an egg.

This is your favorite game company on a toy company: takes egg, drops it in cereal box with plastic toy capsule and violently smashes it against a wall.
or, in other words:

This is your favorite game company: Metal Gear Solid 3 - Snake Eater.

This is your favorite game company on a toy company: Cy Girls

Worthy of being sigged. But I like my current one for now.