Bandai Namco Entertainment

History

On 4 January 2006, Namco Hometek and Bandai Games, the North American consumer game divisions of the former companies, merged to form Namco Bandai Games America Inc., with it absorbing Namco's American subsidiaries which was housed within Namco Hometek's former premises and completing Namco and Bandai's merge in North America. On 11 January, Bandai Namco Holdings Inc. announced that the Japanese video game divisions of Namco and Bandai would merge into Namco Bandai Games Inc. in March 2006. The merger would form together the home console game content, arcade game, and mobile content business under one roof. Both companies in a joint statement cited Japan's decreasing birth rates and advancements in technology as the reason for the merge, and to increase its relevance to newer audiences. Both companies worked independently under the newly formed Bandai Namco Holdings until 31 March 2006, when its video game operations were merged to form Namco Bandai Games. On 30 October, the European divisions of Namco and Bandai would merge as well, forming Namco Bandai Games Europe S.A.S.

In November 2007, Namco Bandai Games announced the absorption of Banpresto (which had been purchased in 2006) and will take over Banpresto's video game software and amusement equipment businesses (which had been traded independently) and will fold it into Namco Bandai Games as it started taken over Banpresto's video game publishing activities which had begun one year later on 1 April 2008, whilst Banpresto's prize business including development and sales of prizes such as UFO catchers was taken over by a new company under the Banpresto name. In August 2008, it was announced that Bandai Networks, Namco Bandai's mobile phone business, would also be merged into Namco Bandai Games on 1 April 2009 and folded.

In September 2008, Namco Bandai Games Europe entered into a joint-venture with holding company Infogrames Entertainment SA to form Distribution Partners S.A.S., which would consolidate Atari's entire distribution network outside of North America and Japan into a single business with exclusive physical packaged-goods distribution rights for video games produced by Namco Bandai and Infogrames within Europe, Asia, South America, Oceania and Africa. The venture would allow Namco Bandai Games to gain a distribution network for the PAL region and would hold a 34% stake, in addition to a stake in Atari Europe and its subsidiaries. On 4 December 2008, Namco Bandai Games America announced that it would form a new publishing label called "Surge". The label would focus on publishing mature titles intended for a western audience and was intended to create a separate identity solely for this purpose. The first title to be published under the label was Afro Samurai. No other titles were released under the label, with other titles that focused within that target audience such as Dead to Rights: Retribution and Splatterhouse being released under the Namco label instead to reflect the series' legacy.

In March 2009, Namco Bandai Games Europe announced it would purchase Atari's stake in Distribution Partners for €37 million and merge it into its own operations. This followed the news of Atari exiting the PAL distribution market to focus on publishing and developing for the massively multiplayer online market. Atari Europe's assets were merged and folded into Namco Bandai in May 2009 while its sale and marketing personnel were transferred to Distribution Partners, of which the prior deal would have allowed Namco Bandai to purchase the remaining 66% stake in Atari Europe June 2012-2013. The merger was completed on 7 July, and Distribution Partners was renamed as Namco Bandai Partners. Alongside that came Atari's entire distribution operations outside North America and Japan, including 100% of Atari Australia Pty Ltd. (formerly OziSoft Pty Ltd.), 100% of the shares of Atari Asia Holdings Pty. Ltd. and 100% of the shares of Atari UK Ltd. Atari would secure a five-year distribution deal for Namco Bandai Partners to exclusively distribute its titles in those territories. The merger would allow Namco Bandai Games to now hold operations in over 50 countries with 17 dedicated offices.

In 2010, Namco Bandai Games entered the Guinness World Records as the company that released the most TV commercials for the same product, a Nintendo DS game called Solatorobo: Red the Hunter. They created 100 versions of the ad as the game consists of 100 chapters.