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Namco Has Large Losses, Blames Everything But Tekken, Cuts 10% Staff,Reveals New Plan

ShogunX

Member
Pretty much all of their IP's have become stale apart from a select few. Tekken has been the same game since 1996.

I mean look at the shit they have released for the 360 at retail so far -

Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation
Beautiful Katamari
Culdcept Saga
Eternal Sonata
The Idolmaster
The Idolmaster: Live For You!
Love Football
Namco Museum Virtual Arcade
Ridge Racer 6
Soulcalibur IV
Tales of Vesperia
Tekken 6

Have I missed anything or is this really everything :lol ?
 
Yasuhara's 30th Year Anniversary Pac-Man game better be some HOT SHIT. Bizarre that nothing has been shown or talked about it as of yet? 107 days to go...
 

ShogunX

Member
I AM JOHN! said:
Afro Samurai and Dynasty Warriors Gundam. There was also some weird Warhammer strategy game or something.

Well its no surprise that they aren't doing terribly well then. Average games aimed at niche markets surely aren't going to make you a good profit.
 
That's what you get for putting everything you have on 360

That's not meant to be a fanboy slur, but Namco literally put all their eggs in the 360 basket for a long while there, and you don't do that if you're a Japanese publisher
 

matmanx1

Member
I know Gundam isn't huge over here in the West but there are certainly enough fans that a non Dynasty Warriors Gundam game that was done with some care and quality and marketed appropriately might sell. It would be an interesting experiment and something fresh, anyway.

I also think Tales could be a winning franchise for Namco in the West if it was marketed and released appropriately. Vesperia certainly has the benefit of great word of mouth at this point and there's some "goodwill" there for HD tales that Namco could capitalize on if they so desired.

Of course they won't do any of those things as they seem to be extremely "disconnected" from their fans and especially their fans in the Western markets. They are like the anti-Capcom in that regard and it's slowly killing them.
 
Amir0x said:
NAMCO should have never canceled Frame City Killer. Easily their most promising title of next-gen.
I'm sure that you're, at least, half-joking, but, sadly, FCK was the last new big thing coming out of them that, in concept, looked like it could appeal to more than existing franchise fans.

Chuck Norris said:
That's what you get for putting everything you have on 360

That's not meant to be a fanboy slur, but Namco literally put all their eggs in the 360 basket for a long while there, and you don't do that if you're a Japanese publisher
Are you sure you're paying attention to their release list? There's hardly anything there in the last few years that has been X360 specific. They've got lots of DS, PSP, PS3, and PC going on in the last two years....at least equal to their X360 efforts.
 

Man God

Non-Canon Member
In This Thread: A dozen or so PS3 fanboys try to blame Namco's financial woes on a lack of a ToV localized port that would probably sell <50k. :lol
 
Man God said:
In This Thread: A dozen or so PS3 fanboys try to blame Namco's financial woes on a lack of a ToV localized port that would probably sell <50k. :lol

I think it'd sell 100k+. But Tales are hardly a solution to they're problem...we just want them :/
 

arstal

Whine Whine FADC Troll
HK-47 said:
Wasnt SC IV out in 08 though? Completing with yourself doesnt sound too great but it should have been out in 09.

SCIV sold like hotcakes to boot. I really doubt Star Wars had THAT much to do with it.

SCV here we come hopefully. (just without shitty online or really horrible guest chars this time please)

Why do they exempt Tekken though- I figured that was their biggest bomb given what they expected and what they sold.

Or they can buy SNK and do KOF vs Tekken. I could see that working somehow.
 
Man God said:
In This Thread: A dozen or so PS3 fanboys try to blame Namco's financial woes on a lack of a ToV localized port that would probably sell <50k. :lol
about time somebody said this.

namco already released ToV once, from what i hear DotNW outperformed it in the states. they released the ps3 of port Eternal Sonata, probably didn't pan out too well seeing as how ToV ps3 isn't coming.

not sure about their other franchises, but in general tales quality has been dropping to hell since Rebirth, not surprised to see it catch up to them.
 
Shogun PaiN said:
Pretty much all of their IP's have become stale apart from a select few. Tekken has been the same game since 1996.

I mean look at the shit they have released for the 360 at retail so far -

Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation
Beautiful Katamari
Culdcept Saga
Eternal Sonata
The Idolmaster
The Idolmaster: Live For You!
Love Football
Namco Museum Virtual Arcade
Ridge Racer 6
Soulcalibur IV
Tales of Vesperia
Tekken 6

Have I missed anything or is this really everything :lol ?
Seriously, the word stale epitomizes everything about Namco. The best thing you can say about any of those games (Excepting T6 as I haven't played it) is that some are competent retreads of older games.

durrrrrrrrrr said:
namco already released ToV once, from what i hear DotNW outperformed it in the states. they released the ps3 of port Eternal Sonata, probably didn't pan out too well seeing as how ToV ps3 isn't coming.

not sure about their other franchises, but in general tales quality has been dropping to hell since Rebirth, not surprised to see it catch up to them.

I'm pretty certain ToV was outperformed by *every* rpg on the 360. Well okay, not Culdcept.
 
That's what happens when you don't release any games that don't target your WW audience. The kids want online MP's(Shooters, 3rd person or First)
 

arstal

Whine Whine FADC Troll
That's like $340 million in US dollars. How are they not bankrupt?

(31 billion yen loss if I read it right)

The real problem is the big-box console model is unsustainable right now. I really think things need to be scaled back costwise.
 

Zen

Banned
arstal said:
SCIV sold like hotcakes to boot. I really doubt Star Wars had THAT much to do with it.

SCV here we come hopefully. (just without shitty online or really horrible guest chars this time please)

Why do they exempt Tekken though- I figured that was their biggest bomb given what they expected and what they sold.

Or they can buy SNK and do KOF vs Tekken. I could see that working somehow.

Wasn't the 2 million number shipped? And wasn't SCIV massively over shipped?
 
If it's going to be all about mining nothing but the past for Namco and many other Japanese publishers who are hurting financially, then it's about time to finally get with Sega on that Tekken/Namco VS. Virtua Fighter/Sega fighting game. That could do well as a multiplatform title and, really, it's just plain overdue after more than a decade of wishful thinking and rumors.
 

GhaleonQ

Member
Son of Godzilla said:
Seriously, the word stale epitomizes everything about Namco. The best thing you can say about any of those games (Excepting T6 as I haven't played it) is that some are competent retreads of older games.

I wouldn't go that far, but the sad kernel of truth is there. Namco games never feel like events, and the innovations aren't even up to those of the handheld Castlevanias. They just exhausted everything that they have. I know a 7th Klonoa game wouldn't have sold gangbusters, but that's the only recent franchise that hasn't been run into the ground.
 

DarienA

The black man everyone at Activision can agree on
ClearCELL said:
Make another Ridge Racer and Ace Combat for teh consoles maybe you can get moar sales.

Key word being consoles... Ace Combat on the PSP? FAIL.
 

Synless

Member
Man God said:
In This Thread: A dozen or so PS3 fanboys try to blame Namco's financial woes on a lack of a ToV localized port that would probably sell <50k. :lol
Why would we have to be fanboys? I own and beat it on the 360 but would love all that extra content. However I have friends who have no intention of buying a 360 who would love ToV and I watch these threads in hopes of giving them good news.
 

SapientWolf

Trucker Sexologist
arstal said:
That's like $340 million in US dollars. How are they not bankrupt?

(31 billion yen loss if I read it right)

The real problem is the big-box console model is unsustainable right now. I really think things need to be scaled back costwise.
Do you really think that's the issue here? Looking at their output this generation I think their under-performance is justified.

AstroLad said:
culdcept is awesome though. :/
Indeed it was. Should have been on XBLA though.
 
matmanx1 said:
I know Gundam isn't huge over here in the West but there are certainly enough fans that a non Dynasty Warriors Gundam game that was done with some care and quality and marketed appropriately might sell. It would be an interesting experiment and something fresh, anyway.

Battlefield Record U.C. 0081 was a good game on the PS3 last year. It's just not coming to North America. I think Bandai has given up on non-Musou Gundam titles over here.
 

Jonnyram

Member
Monty Mole said:
Namco is the new SEGA.

Stupid decisions, not giving customers what they want.
Namco was basically bought out by Bandai. They've been in a bad way for years, thanks to declining arcade sales and lack of big titles on consoles. They have very little autonomy of their own nowadays, and most of the reason why gamers now hate Namco is due to Bandai sucking the creativity out of them.
 

Foffy

Banned
durrrrrrrrrr said:
about time somebody said this.

namco already released ToV once, from what i hear DotNW outperformed it in the states. they released the ps3 of port Eternal Sonata, probably didn't pan out too well seeing as how ToV ps3 isn't coming.

not sure about their other franchises, but in general tales quality has been dropping to hell since Rebirth, not surprised to see it catch up to them.

Didn't the PS3 port of Eternal Sonata come out the same week as the PS3 port of Bioshock? And which one of those games was marketed? There can only be one. :lol

The issue with Namco-Bandai of America is they expect their games to sell when released against more popular games and without marketing. They marketed DotNW a lot more on the internet than ToV. The only franchises of theirs that have that kinda power are Soul Caliber and Tekken (I guess this one no longer counts?). I think the rest of their stuff either sells because it's popular but not of super quality (Ben 10, Gundam) and the rest sells okay based on word of mouth.

They should be doing what Konami is doing with Castlevania by trying to bring fading franchises back into the forefront for the company. The reason most US fans know of the Tales series because it was the only competent JRPG on the Gamecube outside of Nintendo-developed games, including the push by Nintendo internationally for the game. Namco has done to keep it relevant to US/EU fans since that game, with an inconsistent release record, some games taking eons to come out in other regions, and very little shipping/marketing for the games.
 
If they'd just bring over Radiant Mythology 2 on PSP and some kinda total-multiverse substantial Tales Roguelike(I can dream and you know the potential for awesome is there!) then that'd be just super---otherwise they've just got nothing that jumps out at me.
 

Wellscha

Member
Shogun PaiN said:
Pretty much all of their IP's have become stale apart from a select few. Tekken has been the same game since 1996.

I mean look at the shit they have released for the 360 at retail so far -

Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation
Beautiful Katamari
Culdcept Saga
Eternal Sonata
The Idolmaster
The Idolmaster: Live For You!
Love Football
Namco Museum Virtual Arcade
Ridge Racer 6
Soulcalibur IV
Tales of Vesperia
Tekken 6

Have I missed anything or is this really everything :lol ?

Go dance with the angels!

AC6 is awesome! :mad:
 

Agent X

Member
[Nintex] said:
Looking at the performance of New Super Mario Bros. Wii a New Pac Man might not be such a bad idea.

They should do one, and cast Marty Ingels
or Nolan North
as the voice of Pac-Man.
 
Hey Namco, how about you release this-

t880mo.jpg



In North America? Surely that won't lead to anymore losses.
 

InfiniteNine

Rolling Girl
Namco should probably spend some more money advertising things that aren't Tekken. I don't recall ever seeing any commercials or adverts for the Tales of games, or the .hack//games which I greatly enjoyed.

NinMicroSega said:
Hey Namco, how about you release this-

t880mo.jpg



In North America? Surely that won't lead to anymore losses.
Holy fucking shit. I'm totally going to import this now. :lol
 

Mejilan

Running off of Custom Firmware
I'm trying to figure out if this can at all be spun into deluding myself that this can only mean that we'll be getting more localized Tales games.

Oh right. Scamco.
 

Nairume

Banned
NinMicroSega said:
Hey Namco, how about you release this-

t880mo.jpg



In North America? Surely that won't lead to anymore losses.
Sarcasm, no? There's a large enough amount of posters that seem to seriously believe that moderately selling JRPGs would suddenly reverse Namco's fiscal situation.
 

imtehman

Banned
Man God said:
In This Thread: A dozen or so PS3 fanboys try to blame Namco's financial woes on a lack of a ToV localized port that would probably sell <50k. :lol

i don't think they're ps3 fanboys, just ps3 only owners wanting a game that could easily be brought over to the states.

unfortunately though, you'd be right, late ports never (i think?) do well on the ps3, so why bother?

Chuck Norris said:
That's what you get for putting everything you have on 360

That's not meant to be a fanboy slur, but Namco literally put all their eggs in the 360 basket for a long while there, and you don't do that if you're a Japanese publisher

uhhh

Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation
Beautiful Katamari
Culdcept Saga
Eternal Sonata
The Idolmaster
The Idolmaster: Live For You!
Love Football
Namco Museum Virtual Arcade
Ridge Racer 6
Soulcalibur IV
Tales of Vesperia
Tekken 6

you don't think this has somethign to do with it?
 

wizword

Banned
cjelly said:
Other than Splatterhouse and Dead to Rights, what else has Namco got in the pipeline for current gen console?
They have naruto shippuden fighter for xbox 360/ps3 similar to ultimate ninja which is not only a fantastic game but should sell pretty well.
 

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
cjelly said:
Other than Splatterhouse and Dead to Rights, what else has Namco got in the pipeline for current gen console?
Enslaved from Ninja Theory
Inversion from the Timescape developers
Majin from Game Republic
Clash of the Titans from Game Republic
Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm 2
Keroro RPG
Gundam Assault Survive
God Eater

I'm sure they have more, but I'm blanking out.

Not much in the way of especially notable games however.
 

Bebpo

Banned
Nirolak said:
Enslaved from Ninja Theory
Inversion from the Timescape developers
Majin from Game Republic
Clash of the Titans from Game Republic
Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm 2
Keroro RPG
Gundam Assault Survive
God Eater

I'm sure they have more, but I'm blanking out.

Not much in the way of especially notable games however.

Yeah, they're fucked. God Eater is the only one that will make any profit because Japan loves their Monster Hunter clones.
 

EXGN

Member
Wonder why they didn't include US Tekken sales? Sold around ~200K according to CreamSugar.

At any rate, I'm actually looking forward to NB's games this year. Majin from the Folklore guys and then Enslaved from the Heavenly Sword guys.
 
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