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NEWS: Namco & Bandai Closer Now To Merger


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Wyvern



Joined: 01 Sep 2004
Posts: 1596
PostPosted: Wed Jun 29, 2005 2:39 pm Reply with quote
"Activate battle mode, KOS-MOS! The Gundams are attacking!"

Meanwhile, Spike Spiegel and Mistsurugi fight to the death.

This could be so cool....
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TiredGamer



Joined: 11 Mar 2004
Posts: 246
Location: Florida
PostPosted: Wed Jun 29, 2005 2:47 pm Reply with quote
The new company will be called Bandai Namco Holdings Inc. according to news sources.

Namco Hometek is located in San Jose, while Bandai America & Bandai Games are located in shared offices in Cypress (outside Long Beach). Depending on space and leasing, there's no way to know which will close.

I'm of the opinion that Bandai will move their Bandai Games division off to San Jose to cut down on duplication (and maybe future combined efforts among programming teams). Most of Namco's distribution staff will likely either be moved down to Cypress or cut since Bandai is the logical choice for combined distribution.

The "on-topic" matter for ANN is this: I doubt Jerry Chu and Co. will see many changes. Namco has the "Tales of..." properties, but the animation rights are spread out among ADV, Geneon, and Media Blasters right now. Future works may become Bandai Visual exclusives, and we may see more games for animated properties... but nothing earth-shattering. I think, overall, the merger will be good for creative output in terms of games and anime.
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Wyvern



Joined: 01 Sep 2004
Posts: 1596
PostPosted: Wed Jun 29, 2005 4:05 pm Reply with quote
tiredgamer wrote:

The "on-topic" matter for ANN is this: I doubt Jerry Chu and Co. will see many changes. Namco has the "Tales of..." properties, but the animation rights are spread out among ADV, Geneon, and Media Blasters right now. Future works may become Bandai Visual exclusives, and we may see more games for animated properties... but nothing earth-shattering. I think, overall, the merger will be good for creative output in terms of games and anime.


Come to think of it, that probably also means Bandai will end up releasing the Xenosaga anime over here, huh?
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TiredGamer



Joined: 11 Mar 2004
Posts: 246
Location: Florida
PostPosted: Wed Jun 29, 2005 5:29 pm Reply with quote
Wyvern wrote:
Come to think of it, that probably also means Bandai will end up releasing the Xenosaga anime over here, huh?


I'm sure licensing speculation belongs in a different thread, but I will point out to you that XenoSaga TV was produced by Toei and the music is being handled by Columbia.

Since I know that Bandai has never licensed a Toei production, you'll have to wait for one of the others. My own speculation is that Geneon will stay away because of Columbia, and we will see either ADV or Media Blasters go for this title.

I guess we'll find out this Saturday (Anime Expo).
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ferrarimanf355



Joined: 30 Jan 2005
Posts: 159
Location: Seacrest County
PostPosted: Wed Jun 29, 2005 6:30 pm Reply with quote
tiredgamer- Namco Hometek is actually based not in San Jose, but in nearby Santa Clara.
I just hope that this results in Bandai and Namco making games for the Xbox 360, that's all. Frame City Killer from Namco looks nice, but with the Playstation consoles (1, 2, and soon 3) getting the Tekken/Soul Calibur/Xenosaga/Ace Combat/Ridge Racer love... I feel lonely... Crying or Very sad
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kusanagi-sama



Joined: 22 Aug 2004
Posts: 1723
Location: Wichita Falls, TX
PostPosted: Wed Jun 29, 2005 6:32 pm Reply with quote
tiredgamer wrote:
Wyvern wrote:
Come to think of it, that probably also means Bandai will end up releasing the Xenosaga anime over here, huh?


I'm sure licensing speculation belongs in a different thread, but I will point out to you that XenoSaga TV was produced by Toei and the music is being handled by Columbia.

Since I know that Bandai has never licensed a Toei production, you'll have to wait for one of the others. My own speculation is that Geneon will stay away because of Columbia, and we will see either ADV or Media Blasters go for this title.

I guess we'll find out this Saturday (Anime Expo).


Why would Geneon stay away from Xenosaga because of Columbia? What did Columbia do to Geneon?
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TiredGamer



Joined: 11 Mar 2004
Posts: 246
Location: Florida
PostPosted: Wed Jun 29, 2005 10:58 pm Reply with quote
ferrarimanf355 wrote:
Namco Hometek is actually based not in San Jose, but in nearby Santa Clara.

If you search around for Namco Hometek, you will find they are variously listed as residing in San Jose and Santa Clara. Even HotJobs is confused (HQ listed in San Jose, jobs listed in Santa Clara).

kusanagi-sama wrote:
Why would Geneon stay away from Xenosaga because of Columbia? What did Columbia do to Geneon?

Other than be a competitor to its Japanese parent company? Nothing... nothing at all...
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ferrarimanf355



Joined: 30 Jan 2005
Posts: 159
Location: Seacrest County
PostPosted: Wed Jun 29, 2005 11:17 pm Reply with quote
tiredgamer wrote:
If you search around for Namco Hometek, you will find they are variously listed as residing in San Jose and Santa Clara. Even HotJobs is confused (HQ listed in San Jose, jobs listed in Santa Clara).

Funny. Their mailing address is in Santa Clara.
http://www.namco.com/contact.php
I'd like to get a job there... don't know why, probably because I need a change of scenery... college sucks...
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TiredGamer



Joined: 11 Mar 2004
Posts: 246
Location: Florida
PostPosted: Thu Jun 30, 2005 12:11 am Reply with quote
ferrarimanf355 wrote:

Funny. Their mailing address is in Santa Clara.
http://www.namco.com/contact.php
I'd like to get a job there... don't know why, probably because I need a change of scenery... college sucks...

Must've been a recent move (<2 yrs ago) since the World Wide Web is still confused... Laughing
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Super Arrow



Joined: 03 Feb 2005
Posts: 334
Location: Australia
PostPosted: Thu Jun 30, 2005 2:28 am Reply with quote
I hereby dub this company...

BAMCO
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Necros Antiquor



Joined: 10 Nov 2004
Posts: 571
Location: Funny in a car crash sort of way
PostPosted: Thu Jun 30, 2005 1:56 pm Reply with quote
Eh, maybe Bandai with its solid marketing can convince Namco to release Soulcalibur III on all three consoles instead of just PS2 (because of Sony handing them a nice bag of money). I mean, Soulcalibur II did sell much better on Gamecube, and Xbox sales were almost as good as PS2 sales.

I'm still hoping for the possibility of a Soulcalibur anime, which, if done right and with an actual plot, could be very cool. Maybe it could start at the beginning of the franchise (Soul Edge/Blade) and spoiler[show Sigfried's transformation into Nightmare] or expand on the relationships between the characters. Maxi and Kilik are begging for an animated telling of their backstory.
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ferrarimanf355



Joined: 30 Jan 2005
Posts: 159
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PostPosted: Thu Jun 30, 2005 2:27 pm Reply with quote
Necros Antiquor wrote:
Eh, maybe Bandai with its solid marketing can convince Namco to release Soulcalibur III on all three consoles instead of just PS2 (because of Sony handing them a nice bag of money). I mean, Soulcalibur II did sell much better on Gamecube, and Xbox sales were almost as good as PS2 sales.

I'm still hoping for the possibility of a Soulcalibur anime, which, if done right and with an actual plot, could be very cool. Maybe it could start at the beginning of the franchise (Soul Edge/Blade) and spoiler[show Sigfried's transformation into Nightmare] or expand on the relationships between the characters. Maxi and Kilik are begging for an animated telling of their backstory.

Thank you! It's nice to see that someone else thinks this way! Cool
You're technically right about the 'Cube version of SCII outselling the PS2 version. In Europe and Japan, the PS2 version sold the best, but in the US, the 'Cube version outsold the PS2 version by 60K copies. The Xbox version sold 530K copies in the US.
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Ataru



Joined: 04 Jan 2002
Posts: 2327
Location: Missouri (Strikeman)
PostPosted: Thu Jun 30, 2005 2:39 pm Reply with quote
Necros Antiquor wrote:
Maxi and Kilik are begging for an animated telling of their backstory.

Yeah I want to find out if they are ... nevermind.

Yeah, Link had a hand in it, even if XBox had the better graphics and load. And still, to this day, I wonder why they gave the SC 2 spot for the PS 2 to Heihachi? Confused Atleast XBox had a reason why they used Spawn.
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ferrarimanf355



Joined: 30 Jan 2005
Posts: 159
Location: Seacrest County
PostPosted: Thu Jun 30, 2005 2:43 pm Reply with quote
Ataru wrote:
Yeah, Link had a hand in it, even if XBox had the better graphics and load. And still, to this day, I wonder why they gave the SC 2 spot for the PS 2 to Heihachi? Confused Atleast XBox had a reason why they used Spawn.

My best guess is that the PS2 is home to Tekken, and Yoshimitsu is technically a Tekken character, even if the Tekken Yoshimitsu and the SC Yoshimitsu are two different characters...
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TiredGamer



Joined: 11 Mar 2004
Posts: 246
Location: Florida
PostPosted: Thu Jun 30, 2005 5:21 pm Reply with quote
I'm sure this is, again, not exactly the place to discuss this... Laughing

The whole Namco/Sony deal over Soul Calibur III may be about Sony wanting a big title out this Xmas season. Remember that Xbox360 is coming out and it will be a slaughter if Sony doesn't push something out the door that's PS2-only and a big seller. Namco was also, apparantly, looking for a quick development cycle so they focused on the biggest of the current generation.

Namco has already said that they are working on an Xbox360 and Nintendo Revolution version of Soul Calibur III. It's my opinion this was just a ploy to capitalize that last little bit on the current generation before it's eclipsed by the next. Next generation will definitely see multi-platform Soul Calibur (and with III on the newest Nintendo and Microsoft offerings)...

My only question: when can we expect to see a Soul Calibur engine sporting Gundams? Laughing
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