Bandai Namco Holdings

Bandai started in the 1950s as a toy manufacturing company in Japan. During the 1960s, Bandai expanded their business portfolio to include export sales. The 1970s provided Bandai with success through their racing car sets. Bandai established Bandai America Inc. in 1978 in order to have a sales and marketing distributor for western markets. By the 1990s, Bandai was Japan's leading toy company and consumer product licensor for popular franchises such as Power Rangers and Digimon. During the late 1990s, Sega expressed an interest in merging with Bandai, however, plans fell through for this merger due to differing corporate culture.

Namco started in 1955 as a children's entertainment company in Japan under the name Nakamura Manufacturing. In 1958, they eventually expanded their business by manufacturing arcade machines, and through a company reorganization, the company was renamed to Nakamura Amusement Machine Manufacturing Company, through the acronym "NAMCO". In 1974, Namco purchased Atari Inc. Japan for $500'000 including liabilities. The purpose of this acquisition was for a capital injection for Atari Japan in exchange for Namco to be a publisher for Atari games in Japan. In 1978, Namco created a subsidiary in the United States in order to license Namco games to western publishers.

Namco's debut into the video game industry was through a game called Gee Bee. Their next, Galaxian was the first video game to project RGB color spectrum. It was on their third arcade debut, Pac-Man, that Namco gained worldwide acclaim and pop culture relevancy, and as a result, made Pac-Man the definitive mascot for the company. Namco continued their success in the video gaming industry by contributing to the Golden Age of arcades and home console gaming with notable franchises such as Tekken, Soulcalibur and Tales.

Namco Bandai Holdings was created in 2005, when Bandai and Namco performed a management integration.[7] Officially, Namco was purchased by Bandai for $1.7 billion.[8][9] 57% of the company's holding went to Bandai while 43% went to Namco. Furthermore, Bandai swapped one of its shares for 1.5 shares of the new Namco Bandai. Namco traded evenly with a one-for-one share,[10] carried out via a share exchange. The shareholders of Namco received one NBHD share for each Namco share and the shareholders of Bandai received 1.5 NBHD shares for each Bandai share.[3] Prior to the merger, Bandai and Namco had various subsidiaries that worked under them. After the merger of Bandai Namco, the respective Bandai and Namco subsidiaries were re-designated into different areas of the combined conglomerate.

On March 31, 2006, Namco and Bandai's video game operations merged into Bandai Namco Games Inc. (BNGI, Now known as Bandai Namco Entertainment).[11] Namco's arcade and facility management continue under the name of Namco Ltd.[11]

In September 2006, BNHD acquired CCP Co., Ltd. from Casio and made it a wholly owned subsidiary.[12][13] BNHD have since fully acquired developers Banpresto (whose video game operations were absorbed into Bandai Namco Games on April 1, 2008)[14] and Namco Tales Studio since the merger. Formerly, both were partially owned by Bandai and Namco respectively.

The business of Bandai Networks Co., Ltd. was merged into Bandai Namco Games in April 2009 and Bandai Networks subsequently ceased to exist as a separate company.[15]

Namco Bandai bought a 34% stake in Atari Europe on May 14, 2009, paving the way for its acquisition from Infogrames.[16] Until June 30, 2012, Infogrames had the option to sell the other 66% in Atari Europe to NBHD.[17] Between June 31, 2012, to June 20, 2013, Bandai Namco gained the option to acquire the 66% stake.[18] On the 7th of July 2009, Bandai Namco Holdings bought 100% of Atari Australia Pty Ltd. BNHD acquired 100% of the shares of Atari Asia Holdings Pty. Ltd. and 100% of the shares of Atari UK Ltd.[19]

Bandai Namco took over D3 Publisher on March 18, 2009,[20] after first acquiring a 95% stake in the company.[21] In August 2013, Bandai Namco opened a studio in Vancouver, broadening its reach for western demographics.[22]

In October 2019, Bandai Namco Holdings announced plans to acquire Sotsu, a move which will grant the company rights to the entire Gundam franchise, which the company already holds part of due to owning the studio Sunrise and due to Bandai being one of the producers of the series.[23]

The organization of BNHD has changed considerably since the merger. In 2007, NBHD consisted of 5 SBUs (strategic business unit) and the Affiliated Business Companies.[25] In April 2009, the Game Contents SBU and the Network SBU were merged,[26] and since April 2010, NBHD has consisted of three SBUs and the Affiliated Business Companies.[27]

In February 2021, Bandai Namco Holdings announced the merger of its business units. As part of the changes to be done in April 2021, it will reduce its operating units from five to three. Toys & Hobby and Network Entertainment Unit (video games) merged to form Entertainment Unit, Visual and Music Production Unit (production and distribution of anime and music) and IP Creation Unit (Production of anime) merged to form IP Production Unit and Real Entertainment Unit was renamed Amusement Unit (theme parks).[28]

The Toys & Hobby Unit is mainly made up of the former Bandai's toy-making facilities and regional subsidiaries.[29][30]

• Bandai Co., Ltd.
  • Bandai S.A.
  • Bandai UK Ltd.
  • Bandai España S.A.
  • Bandai GmbH
  • Bandai Polska SP.ZO.O
  • Bandai (H.K.) Co., Ltd.
  • Bandai Asia Co., Ltd.
  • Bandai Korea Co., Ltd.
  • Creative Works Co., Ltd.
  • Bandai (Guangzhou) Co., Ltd.
  • Bandai Taiwan Co., Ltd.
  • Bandai South Asia Pte., Ltd.
  • Bandai Industrial Co., Ltd.
  • Bandai (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd.
  • Bandai America Inc.
  • Bandai Corporacion Mexico S.A. de C.V.
• Megahouse Corporation
• CCP Co., Ltd.
• Seeds Co., Ltd.
• Plex Co., Ltd.
• People Co., Ltd.
• Sun-Star Stationary Co., Ltd.
• Fujiya Co.

The Network Entertainment Unit is responsible for all video game products, including games for home consoles, arcades, mobile platforms,[31] and anime production and distribution. The bulk of these facilities are made up by the former Namco, also with Banpresto, D3 Publisher and the Sunrise anime production company, along with the following:

• Bandai Namco Entertainment America
• Bandai Namco Online

• Namco Tales Studio in Tokyo, Japan, it was founded as Wolf Team in 1986, and was fully acquired from Telenet Japan on September 29, 2005.
• Namco Networks America Inc.

The Real Entertainment Unit oversees the company's theme parks and the management of its own arcades, most of which were acquired through the merger with Namco.

• Hanayashiki Co. Ltd., acquired with Banpresto in March 2006.
• Bandai Namco Amusement
  • Namco Entertainment
• Pleasure Cast Co. Ltd, acquired with Banpresto in March 2006.

• Artpresto Co. Ltd.
• Bandai Logipal Inc./Logipal Express Inc.
• Bandai Namco Business Arc Inc.
• Bandai Namco Will Inc.
• Happinet
• Kaikaya Limited
• Sotsu