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Namco founder Masaya Nakamura dies at 91

Occam

Member
Rest in peace. He helped create one of the greatest arcade companies.
I'd love to see a resurrection of those great Namco IPs that have been dormant for too long.
 
It's always sad when people leave, but hopefully he'll get a well deserved rest.

Namco remains even today one of the biggest and best developers and publishers, he must have been proud.
 
Man... Thinking about this loss reminds me of some good games that would have never existed if it wasn't for him. Metro Cross, Baraduke, Motos, and much more. Rest in Peace.
 

jph139

Member
Man, 91 years old with one of the defining companies of an entire industry as your legacy. Now that's a life you can be proud of.

Rest in peace all the same.
 

dallow_bg

nods at old men
NAMCO was my favorite game company growing up and the 80s classics are seared into my brain.

Even today when I see the Namco logo I still get a good feeling.

80s arcade + 90s PlayStation were golden for me.
 

nachum00

Member
Pac-Man is one of the most important videogames ever created. He truly was a legend.

My thoughts and prayers are with his family and may he rest in peace.
 

yyr

Member
Fantastic company. Certainly a big loss, but let's be thankful that he was able to spend 91 years with us, and celebrate the great things he did during that time.

I'll pop on some Namco Museum PS1 later =) It's amazing, not only the quality of the compilations themselves, but also the variety and excellence of their output from that era.

Let this once again remind us that we must do what we can with the short time that we have!
 

Hero

Member
Wow, one of the gaming industry leaders that helped shape the future. Rest in peace and thank you for your contributions.
 
Rest in peace. Namco is kind of a badass company and it really was impressive starting from even Pac-Man. Hell of a mark on the artform.
 
I just recently had the opportunity to play on a real mint original Puckman arcade cabinet.
That was a bit more than a week ago.

Really sad to hear that Nakamura died. But at 91 he at least had a long and fullfilling life.
May he rest in peace.
 
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Source
 

Tizoc

Member
I don't think there's too much to tell from what info is out there: Namco got a special deal when they first signed on to make Famicom games, but after the 5-year arrangement ran out and Nintendo was huge and Pac-Man wasn't a "get" any more, Namco was given the same deal that every other third party had. So Nakamura said he'd support the competition, and this is why you had so many Namco game in the early days of the Mega Drive.

Yeah I know about some of that, but I didn't know about their support for the SEGA MD/Genesis...which begs the question, why the hell can't I remember any Namco games on that system o_O
 

OmegaFax

Member
RIP. Legacy lives on. Pac-Man, Galaga, Dig-Dug, and countless other games the company has produced wouldn't have happened otherwise.
 

v1oz

Member
May he RIP. A true pioneer of the industry.

This is the dude that publicly called out Nintendo on trying to create a monopoly back in the NES era, and he didn't get iced by Yamauchi's hit squad. I'd say he had balls. Also Namco is great. RIP.

Maybe that's why we never got Tekken, an RPG or Ridge Racer back in the day on N64. And I don't recall Namco publishing any major hits on the SNES either. Prior to that they did have big hits on the NES like PAC-MAN and Galaxian/Galaga. But it wasn't until the PlayStation when they starting making major system sellers on consoles like the Tekken and Ridge Racer series.
 
Man, that sucks. Definitely one of the greatest guys in the video game industry in general as the founder of Namco. Hope he rests in peace...
 
RIP sir. You lived a long, storied life.

Eh, Nintendo did similar with Square when they left. "Oh you're leaving us? Don't bother to return" was the sentiment according to the developers that talked to Polygon when they did an oral history about it.

Naw. Reread that FF7 article.
 

Zee-Row

Banned
This is the dude that publicly called out Nintendo on trying to create a monopoly back in the NES era, and he didn't get iced by Yamauchi's hit squad. I'd say he had balls. Also Namco is great. RIP.

This is probably why Namco had such a huge alliance with Sony during the PS1 era.
 
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