Companies

Bandai Namco Entertainment

Bandai Namco Entertainment is a developer and publisher.

Bandai Namco Entertainment Webpage, Facebook

Most Popular Games Developed by Bandai Namco Entertainment

Tekken 8

Tekken 8

January 26, 2024

Fighting

Tekken 8
Tekken 7

Tekken 7

June 2, 2017

Fighting

Tekken 7
Code Vein 2

Code Vein 2

January 30, 2026

RPG

Code Vein 2
Soulcalibur III

Soulcalibur III

October 25, 2005

Fighting

Soulcalibur III
kill.switch

kill.switch

October 28, 2003

Action

kill.switch
Super Robot Wars Y

Super Robot Wars Y

August 28, 2025

RPG

Super Robot Wars Y

Bandai Namco Entertainment is one of Japan’s biggest game developers and publishers, focusing on arcades, PCs, consoles, and mobile devices. Formed in 2005 through the merger of two Tokyo-based companies - Bandai Co., Ltd. and Namco Ltd. - Bandai Namco Holdings has since grown into a global entertainment powerhouse. While the holding company operates across a range of industries, it’s best known worldwide for its hit video games and popular toy lines tied to its iconic brands. Bandai Namco Entertainment is based in Tokyo’s Shinagawa district, with its U.S. headquarters in Santa Clara, California, and additional offices spread across the globe. Bandai Namco Entertainment is led by president and CEO Satoshi Oshita.

Bandai Namco Entertainment as a game developer

The company’s game development is handled by its internal Bandai Namco Studios - a global network of creative teams with over 1,000 employees worldwide. Unlike many major global game publishers, the Bandai Namco Group operates with relatively few development studios, and its individual teams tend to stay out of the spotlight, rarely recognized by name for their work. Bandai Namco Studios’ main development efforts are led by its headquarters team in Tokyo, with additional studios in Singapore, which develops titles for Southeast Asian and Pacific Rim audiences, and in Vancouver, Canada, which focuses on online and social games for Western markets.

Bandai Namco Studios rarely surprises the world with entirely new, original titles, instead focusing almost exclusively on franchises that earned their fame long before the Bandai–Namco merger - and, in many cases, even earlier in the arcade era. Some of Bandai Namco Entertainment’s most significant game series include the Ace Combat arcade flight simulators, Ridge Racer racing games, Time Crisis shooters, the Soulcalibur and Tekken fighting franchises, as well as various titles based on the iconic manga and anime series Dragon Ball and Naruto. Occasionally, Bandai Namco taps into its arcade heritage, bringing back beloved coin-op classics from the late ’80s and early ’90s, including Dig Dug, Galaga, Gundam, and the timeless Pac-Man.

Bandai Namco Entertainment as a game publisher

Although a large portion of Bandai Namco Entertainment’s games remain familiar mostly to Japanese audiences, the company is also a major force in North America and Europe, where it’s widely regarded as one of the top and most recognizable game publishers, publishing games made by such studios as CD Projekt RED, CI Games / City Interactive or The Farm 51.

History of Bandai Namco Entertainment

The beginnings of Bandai and Namco

Although Bandai Namco Entertainment has existed in its current form only since 2006, its history is deeply intertwined with that of its predecessor companies, stretching all the way back to the 1950s. Bandai Co., Ltd. was founded in 1950 in Tokyo’s Taito district, initially focusing on toy production. Bandai’s rise began with its first big success, a racing car set introduced in 1962, sparking rapid expansion through the 60s and 70s. Bandai grew rapidly, and by the 1980s, it had become Japan’s largest toy manufacturer, producing popular licensed products based on franchises such as Daikaiju, Ultraman, Super Robot, Kamen Rider, Super Sentai, Power Rangers, and Gundam. Even after merging with Namco, Bandai continues to thrive in the toy market, standing alongside giants like Mattel, Hasbro, and LEGO as one of the world’s leading toy manufacturers. A curious chapter in Bandai’s history came in the late 1990s, when a proposed merger with SEGA was called off after widespread protests from the company’s middle management.

Just a few years later, in 1955, Namco Ltd., then called Nakamura Manufacturing, got its start in Tokyo’s Ota district. Initially, the company focused on creating children’s attractions in Yokohama, but in 1958 it expanded its operations and rebranded as NAMCO, short for Nakamura Amusement Machine Manufacturing Company. In 1970, the company released its first coin-operated machine, a mechanical car simulator called Racer. In 1974, for a then-staggering sum of $500,000, Namco’s owner acquired Atari’s Japanese branch, a move that proved to be a savvy investment, enabling Namco to become the exclusive distributor of Atari’s arcade machines in Japan.

Namco’s first original game, Gee Bee, was released in 1978. Between 1979 and 1982, Namco released games such as Galaxian, Pac-Man, Galaga, Dig Dug, Xevious, and Pole Position - titles that were truly revolutionary and have since become permanent fixtures in the video game canon. In 1987, Namco made history with Final Lap, the first multiplayer arcade game that allowed up to eight players to compete simultaneously by linking four machines in a simple network. In the late 1980s, Namco entered the home console stage, quickly capturing roughly 40 percent of the Nintendo Entertainment System market. Following criticism of Nintendo’s monopolistic practices, the company also became a strong supporter of the competing Sega Genesis console. At the turn of the 1980s and 1990s, the company unexpectedly broadened its activities, investing in the development of amusement parks, including one located in London.

In 1993, Namco launched one of its most iconic franchises, Ridge Racer, one of the first racing games to feature 3D graphics. It debuted in coin-operated arcades before being released on the Sony PlayStation. A year later, the first installment of the Tekken series was released, later ported to home consoles, launching a franchise that remains popular to this day. By the late 1990s, Namco soon became a major force in the 3D fighting game space, continuing to release new entries in the Tekken series alongside the Soul Blade franchise, known in Japan as Soul Edge. The company also released games like Point Blank and Time Crisis, which used a specialized light gun controller designed for arcade machines and later adapted for home consoles. Around the same time, Namco acquired a controlling stake in the Japanese film studio Nikkatsu, though it sold the stake a few years later following the merger with Bandai.

The formation of Bandai Namco Entertainment

In early 2005, Namco Ltd. and Bandai Co., Ltd. announced plans to merge, which were finalized on September 29, forming Bandai Namco Holdings. On March 31, 2006, Bandai’s video game division was merged into Namco and rebranded as Namco Bandai Games. Meanwhile, the U.S. divisions of both companies - Namco Hometek and Bandai Games - merged to form Namco Bandai Games America. The company expanded further in April 2008 by acquiring the video game division of competitor Banpresto, which was then folded into Namco Bandai Games. In late 2008, Namco Bandai Entertainment launched a new publishing brand called Surge, aimed at Western audiences and featuring games with a slightly more violent edge.

The first - and ultimately only - title released under the Surge brand was the third-person action game Afro Samurai, launched in January 2009 and based on the popular Japanese manga and anime. Later Surge press materials also highlighted upcoming titles such as Dead to Rights: Retribution and Splatterhouse. In the end, both titles came out under the Namco Bandai name, and the Surge brand was discontinued. As part of a 2009 restructuring, Bandai Networks and its mobile gaming division were folded into Namco Bandai Games. In early 2011, Namco Networks was merged into Namco Bandai Games America, effectively consolidating all of the holding company’s video game development and publishing operations.

Namco Bandai Games centralized its development efforts in April 2012 by creating Namco Bandai Studios, a division designed to optimize workflows and enhance collaboration across the company’s various studios. In March 2013, the company opened two new studios, one in Singapore and the other in Vancouver, Canada. The Singapore studio became a key developer for the Asia-Pacific market, while the Vancouver studio focused primarily on online and social games for North American and European audiences. In June 2013, Namco Bandai Partners, previously in charge of distributing the company’s games in the PAL region, was merged into Namco Bandai Games Europe, unifying publishing and distribution under a single entity.

On January 25, 2014, Namco Bandai Games and Namco Bandai Studios announced that they would be renamed Bandai Namco Games and Bandai Namco Studios, respectively. The rebranding aimed to standardize the company’s name, which had previously varied by division and location. A press release in December 2014 announced that the parent company would be renamed Bandai Namco Entertainment, effective April 1, 2015. Bandai Namco Entertainment (BNEI) drives the company’s core strategy, managing everything from production to distribution and marketing, while Bandai Namco Studios (BNSI) dedicates itself entirely to creating games.

In 2018, the company restructured again, transferring its arcade division to its sister company, Bandai Namco Amusement. In September 2020, the company acquired the Canadian studio Reflector Entertainment, and in February 2021, it took a minority stake in Limbic Entertainment. In March, the company revealed it would end its North American arcade operations, citing the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting shutdown of numerous arcade facilities. However, Bandai Namco Amusement America was set to continue operations as usual.

In June 2022, a new entity, Bandai Namco Aces, was established, with Bandai Namco holding a 51% stake and ILCA owning the remaining 49%. The new studio is set to focus on developing AAA titles, with a primary emphasis on the Ace Combat series. In October 2022, Bandai Namco Entertainment acquired a majority stake in Limbic Entertainment.

Successes and failures

Although after 2020, Bandai Namco Entertainment continued to achieve major successes in the publishing market, releasing bestsellers such as Elden Ring, Tekken 8, and Dragon Ball: Sparking!, not all their projects were successful. Bloomberg reported in October 2024 that Bandai Namco Entertainment had shelved multiple projects, among them a Nintendo-commissioned game and adaptations of the Naruto and One Piece series.

Following these cancellations, more than 200 employees were said to have been sent to "release rooms," spaces where unassigned staff were reportedly encouraged to resign. Bloomberg reported that between April and October, Bandai Namco Entertainment cut over 100 positions from its staff. However, the company officially denied these reports, stating that "some employees" simply need to "wait a certain period of time before being assigned to the next project."

In October 2024, Bandai Namco Entertainment faced a major setback when one of its projects ended in a catastrophic failure: Unknown 9: Awakening, developed by Reflector Entertainment. Although its reception wasn't the worst, with Metacritic ratings ranging from 58 to 64 and mixed feedback from Steam users, the game’s commercial performance fell far short of expectations. At its peak around release, only 285 players were simultaneously playing Unknown 9: Awakening on Steam, and some retailers quickly began discounting the game. Given its poor performance, Unknown 9: Awakening, featuring Anya Chalotra from Netflix’s The Witcher, was widely regarded as a flop.

Games in Development

List of all games in development by Bandai Namco Entertainment.

Developed Games

List of all released games developed by Bandai Namco Entertainment.

Upcoming Games

List of all upcoming games that will be published by Bandai Namco Entertainment.

Released Games

List of all released games published by Bandai Namco Entertainment.

Bandai Namco Entertainment News

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