• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Let's look over Nintendo's relationship with Bandai Namco

Great thread and summary by the way Hero of Legend! I liked your Koei-Tecmo one as well.

Thanks! :D

I for one can only applaud Nintendo's quite recent tendency to strengthen the bonds with Japanese publishers like these to get more games made/released for Nintendo platforms. My biggest wish, however, is that their use of Mega Man in Smash Bros will also lead to more collaborations with Capcom outside of Monster Hunter. Now that is a company with IP's I'd think Nintendo would make good use of if given the chance.

Speaking of Monster Hunter: it always bugged me that Bandai-Namco apparently thinks the Wii U's audience would not play the Souls games (going by articles like this one from a year ago) while one of it's closest equivalents (i.e. MH) is pretty much Nintendo exclusive.

Seeing as Nintendo and Bandai-Namco have been so close recently, not releasing at least Dark Souls 2 for Wii U - on two seperate occassions mind you - seems a bit odd and even stubborn. I can't be wrong to think that the audience for both is quite similar and that many Souls fans also like other Japanese Wii U games like Bayonetta 2 and the upcoming Zelda. But apparently Bandai-Namco's market research shows them differently despite MH's success...

You forget BN's direct MH competitor; God Eater. I'm extremely surprised they never attempted a 3DS release, not to mention characters from it actually appear in Project X Zone, so the IP has a presence on 3DS.
 

Shauni

Member
I'm still wondering where this KOS-MOS thing came from? Is that something that's actually been said, because this is the first I'm hearing of it.
 

Kid Ying

Member
Dark souls is a from software game. It isnt even published by banco in Japan. I dont think they have much power over from to try something like that.

Also, i forgot. Namco published Disney infiniyy in Japan also. 3ds and wiiu only.
 

mclem

Member
I'm still wondering where this KOS-MOS thing came from? Is that something that's actually been said, because this is the first I'm hearing of it.

Quite a bit of it is speculation, but that's definitely her appearing in the trailer (she's the top-left of the four-face panel in the OP). The thing is, we don't quite know *why* she's depicted, but her being a player character is concievable.

It's not impossible that they hadn't finalised characters and just wanted some faces to represent a range of characters without actually intending that one to be recognised as KOS-MOS (using it as placeholder art for now). I think, if that's the case, they made a poor choice!
 
Thanks! :D



You forget BN's direct MH competitor; God Eater. I'm extremely surprised they never attempted a 3DS release, not to mention characters from it actually appear in Project X Zone, so the IP has a presence on 3DS.

Well I think that is the exact reason why it is not on 3ds due to monster hunter. Same with toukiden from koei. Good on Bandai and koei for adding ps4 versions to those games and cross play
 
Well I think that is the exact reason why it is not on 3ds due to monster hunter. Same with toukiden from koei. Good on Bandai and koei for adding ps4 versions to those games and cross play

Maybe, but MH clones flooded the PSP which is where the explosion happened and they did really well, including God Eater.
 

sörine

Banned
Well I think that is the exact reason why it is not on 3ds due to monster hunter. Same with toukiden from koei. Good on Bandai and koei for adding ps4 versions to those games and cross play
The reason is likely because Sony paid for it after losing MH. I doubt it's a coincidence that virtually all secondary hunting games failed to follow the genre king.
 
I've been wondering for awhile if Nintendo was trying to ease their way into purchasing Namco-Bandai. They trusted them with one of their biggest franchises, and Miyamoto adores Pac Man. I don't really know if Namco is doing great or not, I didn't think they were? Namco fits nicely with Nintendo, their IPs could easily be used by Nintendo and feel like Nintendo games.

That would be a fairly huge acquisition for them IP wise, but the idea of Pac Man, Dig Dug, etc being Nintendo series is pretty cool. If anything, it'd be worth it just for the classic arcade IPs, let alone Tales, Klonoa, etc that I'm sure Nintendo could make good use of. Or just buy the Namco half and the game IPs and leave Digimon and the toys to Bandai (as I don't think Nintendo would use them as well as the game IPs).

But Digimon and Pokemon under the same company would be all kinds of crazy to anyone who grew up in the late 90s.

If I recall, Bandai and Namco merging in the first place was to head off an acquisition attempt of the former from Nintendo. But who knows at this stage what Nintendo will do when it comes to acquisitions.
 

Malyse

Member
If I recall, Bandai and Namco merging in the first place was to head off an acquisition attempt of the former from Nintendo. But who knows at this stage what Nintendo will do when it comes to acquisitions.
They will buy SEGA but it will send them in a talespin, causing an eventual purchase by Disney.
 

TGO

Hype Train conductor. Works harder than it steams.
Nintendo has always had good support from Namco, but Namco is an off and on 2nd party developera for Sony, has been since PSX
Although I don't see anything from them this gen on Sony's platforms so maybe they're giving Nintendo love now.
But I'd still say Sony has the strongest relationship with them.
 
Nintendo has always had good support from Namco, but Namco is an off and on 2nd party developera for Sony, has been since PSX
Although I don't see anything from them this gen on Sony's platforms so maybe they're giving Nintendo love now.
But I'd still say Sony has the strongest relationship with them.

Well Due to PS4 success in the west they have been adding PS4 versions of some of their games.

Below are some of the games only on Playstation

God eater 2 rage burst PS4,VITA
Godzilla PS3, PS4
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Eyes of Heaven PS3,PS4
J-STARS VICTORY VS+ VITA,PS3,PS4

They are working on a PS4 tales title as well

Bandai works well will all platforms
 

monpiece

Banned
sörine;148649831 said:
The reason is likely because Sony paid for it after losing MH. I doubt it's a coincidence that virtually all secondary hunting games failed to follow the genre king.

Or maybe they all are waiting to be paid, like the genre king was, in order to follow it.
 
It's just been unveiled that more Amiibos work with One Piece, and get this;

Chopper works with Kirby. NOT Pikachu, even though Chopper is voiced by Ikue Ohtani. ARE YOU SERIOUS? :p How did they not do the obvious?
 

sörine

Banned
Or maybe they all are waiting to be paid, like the genre king was, in order to follow it.
If they're waiting to be paid out by Nintendo, they'll be waiting a long time. Were they also paid out to follow MH on PSP?

Sony scrambling with damage control seems like a a much more likely bet. They lost MH so they doubled down on making deals for GE/PS/Toukiden while also financing big hunting games out of SCE (Soul Sacrifice, Freedom Wars). Hasn't seemed to really pay off for the most part though.
 
That would make a lot of sense seeing as Namco also handled the development of Star Fox: Assault.

It was a disaster. I would prefer Nintendo taking care 100% of Starfox. If they want to involve a 3rd party dev, it should be Platinium, no one else !

As far the relationship with Bandai Namco goes, I'm not convinced it's that important. I mean why Soul Calibur 2 HD didn't make it to the Wii U ? And why Bandai Namco put the brakes on Project Cars Wii U ? No Dark Souls, no Dragon Ball, no Tekken 7 ? Sorry, but I'm not impressed...
 

radcliff

Member
I would like the Tales team to collaborate with Hirohide Sugiura's Monolithsoft team. I imagine a game where you move your characters around a map on a grid similar to SRPGs (or like Project X Zone- developed by Hirohide Sugiura's Monolithsoft team), but once you engage your enemies in battle, it plays similarly to the Tales series (real time battles). I would call it a straction rpg. Does anything like this already exist?
 
I would like the Tales team to collaborate with Hirohide Sugiura's Monolithsoft team. I imagine a game where you move your characters around a map on a grid similar to SRPGs (or like Project X Zone- developed by Hirohide Sugiura's Monolithsoft team), but once you engage your enemies in battle, it plays similarly to the Tales series (real time battles). I would call it a straction rpg. Does anything like this already exist?

That's the Project X Zone team that more or less originated at Banpresto right? What a funny team to bring in at Monolith, I assume they only worked with each other on Namco X Capcom prior to that team forming? They also did the OG Saga games on DS I believe.

Guess Monolith really took a liking to Banpresto and their SRPG Gundams and what not.

Funny, you'd think they'd partner with the Summon Night team at Banpresto or something. Or did they just publish those games?
 

monpiece

Banned
sörine;148685672 said:
If they're waiting to be paid out by Nintendo, they'll be waiting a long time. Were they also paid out to follow MH on PSP?

Sony scrambling with damage control seems like a a much more likely bet. They lost MH so they doubled down on making deals for GE/PS/Toukiden while also financing big hunting games out of SCE (Soul Sacrifice, Freedom Wars). Hasn't seemed to really pay off for the most part though.

Doesn't make any sense. If they would moneyhat something, it would be a lot easier to moneyhat a big game from Square Enix, that obviously would do a lot better than things you say they moneyhat.

Going by logic, it is a million times more logical that a company uses party of the legendary war chest to buy a multi-million seller franchise exclusivity that would grant them millions of new customers no matter what it happened than a company that obviously isn't keen on making any significant effort to support its own product moneyhatting several games to get a few hundred thousand software sales.

Despite frustrated fans calling companies stupid all the time, I believe that these multibillion companies are more prone to make logical and smart decisions than dumb decisions, so thinking only logically and not with fan glasses, the proposition I invented out of thin air looks more realistic than the proposition you invented out of thin air.
 

sörine

Banned
Doesn't make any sense. If they would moneyhat something, it would be a lot easier to moneyhat a big game from Square Enix, that obviously would do a lot better than things you say they moneyhat.

Going by logic, it is a million times more logical that a company uses party of the legendary war chest to buy a multi-million seller franchise exclusivity that would grant them millions of new customers no matter what it happened than a company that obviously isn't keen on making any significant effort to support its own product moneyhatting several games to get a few hundred thousand software sales.

Despite frustrated fans calling companies stupid all the time, I believe that these multibillion companies are more prone to make logical and smart decisions than dumb decisions, so thinking only logically and not with fan glasses, the proposition I invented out of thin air looks more realistic than the proposition you invented out of thin air.
Sony's moves here were pretty clear, they doubled down hard on hunting games after losing MH. They funded Soul Sacrifice and Freedom Wars with noted developers and put big campaigns behind each (something they never bothered with on PSP). And suddenly big hunting games on other formats like PSP and PC started getting (sometimes enhanced) Vita versions. God Eater and Phantasy Star were some PSP's biggest sellers, you really think Sony didn't incentivize to keep those games in their ecosystems and try to push their new handheld? You really think they did nothing after losing the franchise that almost single handedly drove PSP's success?

It'd be sort of like if in the late 1990s like every JRPG franchise didn't follow FFVII to PlayStation and instead had stuck it out on N64. It's just so unlikely it's almost humorous. This isn't coming out of thin air.
 

monpiece

Banned
sörine;148790978 said:
Sony's moves here were pretty clear, they doubled down hard on hunting games after losing MH. They funded Soul Sacrifice and Freedom Wars with noted developers and put big campaigns behind each (something they never bothered with on PSP). And suddenly big hunting games on other formats like PSP and PC started getting (sometimes enhanced) Vita versions. God Eater and Phantasy Star were some PSP's biggest sellers, you really think Sony didn't incentivize to keep those games in their ecosystems and try to push their new handheld? You really think they did nothing after losing the franchise that almost single handedly drove PSP's success?

God Eater 2 was announced at the same time as Monster Hunter 4, so their biggest hunting game was secured. There your argument goes down the drain. Tecmo Koei also made public the reasoning behind making Toukiden for Playstation platforms. If you are going to say it is a excuse given because they were moneyhatted, you can also put the reason why Capcom chose 3DS for Monster Hunter 3G and 4 as an excuse because they were moneyhatted.

If you are putting Soul Sacrifice and Freedom Wars in your argument, you are also saying that Nintendo moneyhats Namco, Tecmo Koei, Gung Ho, Game Freak etc, to develop games for them. That is not the definition of moneyhatting.


sörine;148790978 said:
It'd be sort of like if in the late 1990s like every JRPG franchise didn't follow FFVII to PlayStation and instead had stuck it out on N64. It's just so unlikely it's almost humorous. This isn't coming out of thin air.

It humorous to assume that JRPGs were "following the leader" during FFVII days. Do you know Sega Saturn? Do you have any idea about how many RPGs it had, and how successful it was on Japan? Nobody was following the leader. Nintendo just adopted a technical solution for N64 that was not fit for the genre, so that companies started making their games for platforms that were fit. It is the same reason why Phantasy Star Online 2 was on Vita and not anywhere else. But if some Nintendo fans see every developer that switched from Nintendo platforms or opted for publishing in other platforms as part of a hideous scheme, betrayalton or having been moneyhatted, then they can stay with their "logical only to fit their discourse" reasons for what happens.
 
I thought there was a rumor that Xenosaga trilogy will be on playstation. Though if it comes out on Nintendo, I might jump and get a WiiU.
 
I thought there was a rumor that Xenosaga trilogy will be on playstation. Though if it comes out on Nintendo, I might jump and get a WiiU.

Isn't there no real rumours, just the mention from Harada saying he would like to do it, but needs to see that the demand is there, but then after petitions went online it was "proven" that the demand is not there. I really want a Xenosaga Trilogy HD release, but it doesn't sound likely. As for platform? I have no idea, but nor would I care, I just want it. In fact, I'd settle for the trilogy on PSN as PS2 classics.
 
Isn't there no real rumours, just the mention from Harada saying he would like to do it, but needs to see that the demand is there, but then after petitions went online it was "proven" that the demand is not there. I really want a Xenosaga Trilogy HD release, but it doesn't sound likely. As for platform? I have no idea, but nor would I care, I just want it. In fact, I'd settle for the trilogy on PSN as PS2 classics.

Oh, I'm refering to this http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=144519589&postcount=178
Though, I'm no sure how reliable it is.
 

Neff

Member
I'll happily take Namco arcade/PC Engine VC titles, please.

RIDGE RACER COMPILATION PLEASE GOD
 

sörine

Banned
God Eater 2 was announced at the same time as Monster Hunter 4, so their biggest hunting game was secured. There your argument goes down the drain. Tecmo Koei also made public the reasoning behind making Toukiden for Playstation platforms. If you are going to say it is a excuse given because they were moneyhatted, you can also put the reason why Capcom chose 3DS for Monster Hunter 3G and 4 as an excuse because they were moneyhatted.
Down the drain? You need to check your timeline, God Eater 2 for Vita was announced a full year after MH4 was announced for 3DS.

I know Koei said they went to Vita to avoid MH, but it's a pretty ridiculous notion and was blasted thoroughly when it came up in the MC thread. If Sony had held on to MH do you honestly think Toukiden would've gone to 3DS? Never would've happened.

And I don't doubt Nintendo moneyhatted MH3/3G/4. Iwata's been going hard after the franchise. He's probably trying to lock down MH5 and keep it off my iPhone as we speak.

If you are putting Soul Sacrifice and Freedom Wars in your argument, you are also saying that Nintendo moneyhats Namco, Tecmo Koei, Gung Ho, Game Freak etc, to develop games for them. That is not the definition of moneyhatting.
Those aren't moneyhats and I never said they were? They're big investment 1st party contracted projects and they show a clear strategy that SCE was forced to follow after losing their golden goose. The strategy was basically "grab everything else".

It humorous to assume that JRPGs were "following the leader" during FFVII days. Do you know Sega Saturn? Do you have any idea about how many RPGs it had, and how successful it was on Japan? Nobody was following the leader. Nintendo just adopted a technical solution for N64 that was not fit for the genre, so that companies started making their games for platforms that were fit. It is the same reason why Phantasy Star Online 2 was on Vita and not anywhere else. But if some Nintendo fans see every developer that switched from Nintendo platforms or opted for publishing in other platforms as part of a hideous scheme, betrayalton or having been moneyhatted, then they can stay with their "logical only to fit their discourse" reasons for what happens.
I think you've got this backwards, I'm saying Square opened the floodgates with FFVII and JRPGs followed the genre king (or at least the genre prince) to PlayStation. Breath of Fire, Tales of, Star Ocean, Chrono, Megaten, Front Mission, Suikoden, SRT, Mana, SaGa, Soulblazer (sort of), even Dragon Quest. They didn't stick with N64, they didn't jump to Saturn (except Megaten/SRT briefly detouring). That's sort of the opposite of what we see happening with 3DS hunting games. They all stuck with PlayStation for some unknown reason, even though Vita will be lucky to manage a quarter the sales PSP gave them. If Namco Bandai, Sega and Koei Tecmo weren't compensated for that risk then they all majorly fucked up.

And really I'm not sure why you take so much issue with this? It shows Sony actually took initiative and did some major heavy lifting to turn their fortunes around. And as pathetic as Vita's hardware sales have been, I'm afraid to imagine what the Vita userbase would look like if Sony hadn't scrambled and secured this content. This isn't a bad thing.
 

monpiece

Banned
sörine;148888901 said:
Down the drain? You need to check your timeline, God Eater 2 for Vita was announced a full year after MH4 was announced for 3DS.

But it had already been announced to PSP. It went to Vita mostly because it had to be delayed and by the time it would be released, Banco realized it wouldn't do releasing only for PSP in late 2013.

sörine;148888901 said:
I know Koei said they went to Vita to avoid MH, but it's a pretty ridiculous notion and was blasted thoroughly when it came up in the MC thread. If Sony had held on to MH do you honestly think Toukiden would've gone to 3DS? Never would've happened

Because this is the incorrect interpretation, that is why it is ridiculous. They released Toukiden on Vita because they knew the profile of the average Vita owner through the researches that have been made, and knew there were many Vita owners that were frustrated for the lack of Monster Hunter, so that they could fill the void if they had a good game.

sörine;148888901 said:
And I don't doubt Nintendo moneyhatted MH3/3G/4. Iwata's been going hard after the franchise. He's probably trying to lock down MH5 and keep it off my iPhone as we speak.

Those aren't moneyhats and I never said they were? They're big investment 1st party contracted projects and they show a clear strategy that SCE was forced to follow after losing their golden goose. The strategy was basically "grab everything else".

It was more like Sony felt pressured to give some kind of support to Vita when they realized they wouldn't be getting a lot of 3rd party support. Because most of their IPs would not help that much, they tried to gamble in a genre they knew their customers were interested in, and other projects that didn't take a lot of resources, like Tearaway, Killzone Mercenary and Oreshika. That support dried up quickly, though, as they decided to focus on PS4 and rebrand Vita as a PS4 accessory.

sörine;148888901 said:
I think you've got this backwards, I'm saying Square opened the floodgates with FFVII and JRPGs followed the genre king (or at least the genre prince) to PlayStation. Breath of Fire, Tales of, Star Ocean, Chrono, Megaten, Front Mission, Suikoden, SRT, Mana, SaGa, Soulblazer (sort of), even Dragon Quest. They didn't stick with N64, they didn't jump to Saturn (except Megaten/SRT briefly detouring). That's sort of the opposite of what we see happening with 3DS hunting games. They all stuck with PlayStation for some unknown reason, even though Vita will be lucky to manage a quarter the sales PSP gave them. If Namco Bandai, Sega and Koei Tecmo weren't compensated for that risk then they all majorly fucked up.

Your list consists of many Square series. Suikoden was released before FFVII, Megaten had a presence on Saturn. Some series went to the most successful console and some avoided Saturn because by the time they were made, Sega had already announced or even launched Dreamcast. It is not just a "follow the leader" thing, there are reasons, and the reasons why most didn't stick with N64 are obviously technological. Even the smallest PS and Saturn RPGs wouldn't fit in on cartridge.

Your argument is based on being "wise after the event" for hunting games not going to 3DS. Apart from Toukiden, the games you mention were either planned for Playstation platforms or are developed by Sony. Even so, none of the games were announced after Monster Hunter 4 was released on 3DS, so it is not a situation like FFVII, were many of games you mention are 1998, 1999, or even 2000, so that they were either planned after FFVII success or were at early stages of development and were already burned by Nintendo 64 being on cartridges, making it almost impossible to develop compelling RPGs for it. The fact that no new hunting games were announced for Vita after MH4 release apart for the extended versions makes your point moot. How could they know Monster Hunter 4 would not have a worrying decline on 3DS before knowing how it had performed?

sörine;148888901 said:
And really I'm not sure why you take so much issue with this? It shows Sony actually took initiative and did some major heavy lifting to turn their fortunes around. And as pathetic as Vita's hardware sales have been, I'm afraid to imagine what the Vita userbase would look like if Sony hadn't scrambled and secured this content. This isn't a bad thing.

I take issue of people making wild claims to support their biased arguments. The objective of claiming that Sony obviously moneyhatted games with no proof is to support the argument that every game should be released on 3DS, and when they aren't is that something "wrong" happened. But being moneyhatted, stubborn, greedy and liking to suffer are not the only reasons why publishers make games for other platforms. It is not through the insistence of four or five members, that are constantly on MC threads, in repeating this mantra at every opportunity that it will become true.
 

Bagu

Member
Nintendo, Bandai-Namco, and Koei Tecmo are waiting to buy Capcom's stock. Then They'll merge into a single entity. Got an uncle in the know.
This a joke
 
I just realized that I forgot one game as part of this team-up, but it's easy to see why.

disneymagicalworld3dsjpg-e321f0.jpg


It was by Bandai Namco in Japan but Nintendo localized it in the west.

Most would probably forget BN was even behind it, I see it as a Disney game way before a BN game. :p

Tetris Axis kind of counts also, as it was published by Bandai Namco (specifically Bandai) in Japan, and Nintendo brought it to NA (Tetris Online self-published seemingly in EU).
 
they still own a minority share with bandai namco... i remember that there was a take over rumor in the gamecube days (and it would be pretty good for both bandai namco and nintendo if you think about it. market all that nintendo characters as toys = tons of money; all those anime games with nintendo quailty= tons of money) anyways it looks like they will not go down that route.
 
Didn't hideo baba say mainline tales game will stay playstation exclusive?

But yeah symphonia hd only on ps3 is crazy
Hideo Baba is a tool and he ran the "Tales of" Nintendo/Microsoft exclusive to the ground last gen. On purpose.

Every game they do elsewhere, be it Tales of Symphonia "2", Tales of Vesperia, Tales of Graces, Tales of Hearts... Hell, outsourced tales like Tales of Innocence... They have to port over with extra shit to some Playstation platform, even if it's on a Playstation variant that doesn't sell - Like the Vita.

Then badly port Tales of the Abyss, see it selling, ignore it.


Guy has an agenda.
Didn't Nintendo tried to do a hostile takeover of Bandai. Bandai had to merge with Namco to prevent that?
I don't think that was ever the case.

Nintendo bought a lot of Bandai stock over the years for leverage, kinda like how Sony actually had a lot of Square-Enix stock at some point. That meant they were on the board of directors but having a say is different than dictating what has to be done. Wasn't like that.

Somewhere down the line it turned out Bandai was on sale, but Nintendo didn't go for it. If they had Namco would have no chance in the matter, I think.

They traded their stock in for Monolith so it worked out nicely in the end.
Nintendo, Bandai-Namco, and Koei Tecmo are waiting to buy Capcom's stock. Then They'll merge into a single entity. Got an uncle in the know.
This a joke
The triforce is complete.
 
Top Bottom