Cover Story
(January 2007)Cover Story
(January 2007)If you had to describe Namco you'd instantly think of the video games the company has developed over the years: Galaxian, Pac-Man, Rally-X, Galaga, Bosconian, Dig Dug, Pole Position, Xevious, Mappy, Soul Edge, Tekken, and the Ridge Racer series to name a few. But there's more to this company than its industry icon video games.
Namco began in Tokyo, Japan in 1955 as Nakamura Mfg. Ltd. named for its founder Masaya Nakamura. It began by producing mechanical rocking horses and similar children's rides, which were installed in a number of department stores in Yokohama and Nihonbashi. The company continued this line of production through the 1960s and expanded with the addition of rides modeled after Walt Disney characters in 1966.
The company's brand name was changed to Namco in 1971 and three years later it acquired the Japanese division of Atari, which brought Namco into the coin-op video game market. Namco Enterprises Asia Ltd. was established in Hong Kong, soon followed by Namco America Inc. in California.
In 1978 Namco released its first arcade video game, Gee Bee, which was designed by Toru Iwatani who also designed two sequels: Bomb Bee and Cutie Q. 1980 saw the introduction of one of the company's most famous and the most recognized coin-op arcade games, Pac-Man. The main character is now the company's official mascot.
When Nintendo began producing its Famicom home console unit, Namco started the development of game titles for it beginning with Galaxian, which had first been introduced to arcades in 1979 and became a mega hit.
Namco was the industry's first manufacturer to develop and release a multi-player, multi-cabinet competitive game, Final Lap, in 1987. This game allowed up to eight players to compete when four, two-player cabinets were linked in a simple network. In 1989 another racing simulation game, Winning Run, was released; that same year the company's expertise with driving simulation matured with the development of the Eunos Roadster Driving Simulator, a joint venture with the Mazda Motor Corp., followed by an educational program for traffic safety developed with Mitsubishi.
The move into the U.S.
It wasn't until the 1990s that Namco began directly selling coin-op arcade games in the United States through its subsidiary Namco America. Namco was also finding success with arcades such as Sennichimae Plabo, which opened in Osaka and featured a new concept of large-scale arcade amusements, and Namco Wonder Eggs, a theme park opened in Tokyo. Additional amusement parks were opened, including Namco Wonder Park Sagamihara and Namco Wonder City.
In 1993 Namco merged its U.S. arcade operation Namco Operations Inc. with the newly acquired Aladdin's Castle Inc. chain of arcades to form Namco Cybertainment Inc., bringing the company to the forefront as the largest arcade company in the world. In subsequent years Namco Cybertainment Inc. purchased several other arcade operators, further strengthening the company's overall arcade operation. Namco Cybertainment now operates arcades under the names Time Out, CyberStation, Aladdin's Castle, Diamond Jim's, Space Port, and Pocket Change.
Also in 1993 Ridge Racer, a driving simulation game, entered arcades and featured 3D computer graphics; the game was later released for the Sony PlayStation. Another of the company's most famous games, Tekken, was released in 1994, which was also soon ported to the PlayStation. In 1995 the game Soul Edge (also called Soul Blade) was released. This was the second game to feature weapons in a 3D fighting environment on a console system (Battle Arena Toshinden was the first). With its Tekken and Soul Calibur franchises Namco has been dominating the 3D fighting game market for over a decade.
Namco and Bandai
In 2005 Namco was acquired by Bandai, the leading Japanese toy maker, and the two companies were known as Namco Bandai Holdings, the third largest video game entity in Japan. As such, Namco is now a part of the Namco Bandai Group. In Jan. 2006 a Namco Bandai subsidiary, Namco Networks America Inc, was established in the United States to handle mobile games in North America. Working with the new "next-gen" platform Namco can port many of its time-tested arcade games to cell phones. In March 2006 Namco Networks also opened an e-commerce operation, www.clubNAMCO.com, offering official merchandise based on Namco games.
Namco Bandai group's vision is to become the world's most inspiring entertainment group by providing entertainment that offers dreams, fun, and inspiration to a global audience. With this vision in mind Namco Bandai launched its three-year, medium-term management plan in April 2005.
President of the group Takeo Takasu explained that the plan is aimed at increasing the group's corporate value by strengthening, enriching, and expanding its proprietary portfolio management. "We are focused on reinforcing the functions of our business (regional), content portfolios, and creating synergistic links between them to create a Portfolio Spiral Effect that will maximize our growth potential," Takasu said.
He continued, "In addition, the plan includes our Entertainment Hub concept that extends from content creation to product development and sales, allowing the group to fully address a broad range of business domains. By strengthening the concept through the application of synergy from within the group and through mutual utilization of resources between our partner companies in Japan and abroad we intend to further promote this concept. To be a winner in today's globally competitive and rapidly changing entertainment industry, we must not only have a strong business foundation but also be able to create entertainment that anticipates change in terms of trend and environment.
"The shape of dreams, fun, and inspiration will essentially change over time. However, we firmly believe that the three are vital to the well being and contentment of each and every individual. Bearing this in mind the Namco Bandai Group intends to meet the challenges of our age with our unrivaled enthusiasm and passion, endeavoring to create entertainment that is unequalled in popularity and creativity and offers dreams and inspiration to people around the world."
Redemption
Sure the company has made a name and reputation with video games, but never let that fool you that it's all it does. Namco has wowed the industry with some recent spectacular redemption games prompting comments about Namco's new focus. But redemption is hardly a novel idea from Namco. Do you remember Namco redemption classics like Wacky Gator, Cracky Crab, Cosmo Gang, Shoot-A-Way, Monster Castle, Jackpot, and Check Point Rally? A history of redemption puts Namco in a unique position to offer operators redemption games that are based on what works and Namco knows from experience.
Flamin' Finger, for example, was introduced two years ago beginning with a really fun concept of using your finger on a touch screen to follow a row of lights as they travel around the screen. It evolved into a prize merchandiser, which drew an even bigger following.
Namco's current games, shown at the recent International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions (IAAPA) Expo, include Jumpin' Jackpot, destined to go down in history as a classic. It's innovation in action with its virtual jump rope theme. It's quick and fun and features a physical aspect embraced by teens. The selectable jackpot focus on Jumpin' Jackpot illustrates why it's so much fun and unique. Namco's notes that this title brings a new avenue of revenue into a location.
Also new is Shoot the Moon, a skill-based coin flipper with a personality. Players can use one or many coins. Comet! features flashy game play with a thin footprint and attractive cabinet. It is a light-stopping redemption game but it's vertical as opposed to the traditional horizontal games. These are just the tip of the iceberg as far as redemption you'll see from Namco as long as the market demands fresh, innovative, pioneering, unique redemption games.