Tekken publisher finds a willing partner in the company behind Puzzle Quest and Earth Defense Force 2017.
It's a buyer's market in the gaming industry these days, with numerous publishers financially struggling and dealing with depressed share prices. The proposed Square Enix acquisition of Eidos wasn't the only such union revealed today, given that Namco Bandai began its own attempt to purchase fellow Japanese firm D3Publisher.
In an announcement on its Japanese investor-relations site, Namco Bandai said that it had made a tender offer for D3Publisher shares. A D3 representative confirmed for GameSpot that Namco Bandai plans to acquire 100 percent of its Japanese parent company, D3 Inc., as well as subsidiaries D3Publisher of America, D3Publisher of Europe, and developer Vicious Cycle.
"D3Publisher is thrilled to join forces with [Namco Bandai] to further strengthen their position in the US and European marketplaces and continue to make quality games that gamers will enjoy," the representative said.
According to Namco Bandai, the offer is an attempt to expand its home-console game business while strengthening its mobile operations as well. The publisher also said that it is eager to expand its casual- and family-games business in Europe and North America.
D3Publisher is best known by US gamers for cult favorites such as Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords and Earth Defense Force 2017. For its part, Vicious Cycle has been establishing a name for itself with comic action games such as Dead Head Fred and the upcoming Eat Lead: The Return of Matt Hazard. In Japan, D3Publisher also boasts a long-running line of budget games known as The Simple series, as well as a robust mobile-phone gaming business.
Brendan Sinclair has been a games journalist since 1999. His tastes are eclectic, though he has a definite affinity for games with arcade roots. He's Canadian, but has also been at home in Atlanta, Austin, Chicago, and San Francisco.
@thingta42 What an idiot, do you even know how big of a tool D3 is? And they are publishers, not developers. D3 just destroyed one of their promising franchise: Puzzle Quest with Galactrix. They are dead in my eyes. This will be a horrible mistake to acquire an over valued D3 at this point on NB's part. Then again, NB and D3 belongs to each other, they are equally incompetent. I want them to fail faster, togather.
Both are Very big Japanesse Developers. Enix has Titles such as Final Fantasy While Namco has Soul Series and Tekken. Why cant they Make a Merger like Activision and Blizzard did a while ago and become a Gaming Powerhouse?
Is it just me, or does Bandai really think that Square is their rival? Square joins up with Enix, Bandai joins up with Namco. SquareEnix buys Taito and Eidos, NamcoBandai buys D3. I wouldn't be surprised if Bandai goes after another company to offset the addition of Eidos.
@CorruptGamerGX Yeah, I just found out that Tomy released a lot of Naruto for the DS and GBA in Japan, but for no other platform. But expecting more Naruto? For Nintendo platforms, I don't think so. Namco Bandai has always supported Sony more than anyone else. Even though D3 is with Namco Bandai, D3 betrayed Tomy. Unless Sega (a third party developer, which makes more with Nintendo) picks up the Naruto: Clash of Ninja franchise with Tomy. Clash of Ninja is screwed all thanks to Namco.
What a joke. I don't know why everyone is happy to see 2 companies that produce shovelware and overpriced DLC collide. And you need to learn how to count nintendoboy16. There are FAR more Tomy Naruto games published by D3 in the States than Bandai's own. Now that both companies are toghther, expect to see MORE Nauto titles than ever before.
My first and only D3 game has been Bangai-O which is hard, but very fun! Are these mergers and buyouts going to continue? O_O Soon we will only have- Nintendo Microsoft Sony Sega EA Square-Enix Namco Bandai Capcom Activision THQ Ubisoft Koei-Tecmo Who will be next?
Before I was against company mergers but recently I've had a change of heart. Merging companies can help each other financially as well as on the production level. Being able to work together and share strengths could benefit the gaming industry by giving us better quality games than in the past. I've never really played alot of Namco/Bandai games (save some Gundam games) but I wish them luck and looking forward to what they can come out with.
meh... the last namco bandai game i cared about was one of the gundam games way back when... so this news isn't news to me... betcha this has absolutely no effect on Tekken wat so ever...
I have just about had it with Namco Bandai. They're milking the Naruto franchise worse than Tomy or Ubisoft. Their games haven't been as great like back when they were seperate, and now they take away D3.
@Masterx1220 From Wikipedia: "Jump Superstars will not be released outside of Japan on account of cross-licensing issues created due to the distribution rights of the several different series being held by numerous anime and manga licensing companies." So, to answer your question: no.
While D3 seems to be holding on pretty well for the time being, I have to say that I haven't been really blown away by anything they have been involved in yet, so I don't know, I guess it's a good thing? Puzzle Quest was still a pretty interesting concept, so maybe they have some good ideas floating around, we'll see if anything comes out of this joint. Namco-Bandai has some pretty decent games, but I still kind of have this love/hate relationship with their work. I'd have to say it's mostly positive, but I think they could improve some things. Either way, this sounds like positive acquisition, so hopefully D3Publisher can bring some fresh ideas to NB. Sure are a lot of companies having to buy eachother these days though...gotta say it's kind of getting scary.
does this mean that we could possibly see a game like oh say jump superstars here in the future
i think this will suck. d3 was niche, but if namco/bandai gets them well just probly see multiple ports of some crap for phones n stuff. just seemas like d3 is doing so well. damn this economy T-T
How about releasing Mobile ops for American Gundam fans sense you have so much money to spend.
Pretty soon we will only have a few big Developer/publisher companies if these buyouts continue. Not that there is a problem with that, as long as games continue to be good.
bandai is still a great company even after they merged with namco with d3 the 3 of them the company will even be much better, but i am wondering on what will change will some of the nintendo games that d3 works on
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