


In early 2005, Namco Ltd. and Bandai Co. Ltd. announced plans to combine their operations. The merger took effect in September of that same year and both companies became under the umbrella of the newly created Bandai Namco Holdings.
On March 31, 2006, the video games division of Bandai was merged with Namco and renamed Namco Bandai Games (Bandai Namco Games in Japan).
On January 25, 2014, Namco Bandai Games and Namco Bandai Studios announced that the companies would be known as Bandai Namco Games and Bandai Namco Studios worldwide, respectively. The change is intended to unify the brand internationally (since the company was already known as Bandai Namco in Japan) in order to increase the "value" and "appeal" of the name. In December 2014, the company announced in a press release that the full company name will be changed to Bandai Namco Entertainment on April 1, 2015. Bandai's toy division, the largest toy company in Japan and third largest in the world, still operates as the core company of Bandai Namco's Toy and Hobby unit, and the Namco brand continued to be used until 2018.
They had a Webcomic site known as ShiftyLook, which specialized in comics based off various games, however it was closed down in 2014.
Back on June 22, 2012, it was announced that Bandai Namco Games are partnering with Nintendo and Sora Ltd. to produce the next Super Smash Bros. games for the Wii U and Nintendo 3DS. Almost two years later, it was confirmed that Pac-Man would be a playable fighter. Namco Bandai are lending some of their top staff to the project, such as director of the Tales Series Yoshito Higuchi and the main TEKKEN Project development team.
Developed Games
- .hack
- Ace Combat
- Baraduke
- Battle City
- Bosconian
- Bravoman (Now Production)
- Breakdown
- Code Vein
- Countdown Vampires
- Dark Escape 4D
- Deadstorm Pirates
- Digimon [most games, owns the franchise]
- Dig Dug
- Dragon Valor
- Drift Spirits
- Dark Souls (FromSoftware)
- Eternal Sonata (tri-Crescendo)
- Fragile Dreams: Farewell Ruins of the Moon
- Galaga
- Galaxian
- Genpei Touma Den
- Go Vacation
- Great Greed
- God Eater
- Ghoul Panic (8ing/Raizing)
- Idolish 7
- The iDOLM@STER
- Katamari Damacy (with NOW Production)
- Klonoa
- Kosodate Quiz My Angel
- The Legend of Valkyrie
- Lost Reavers
- Mappy
- Mario Sports Superstars (with Camelot Software Planning)
- Marvel Land
- Muscle March
- Mizuiro Blood
- Namco Museum
- Ninja Assault (with NOW Production)
- Noby Noby Boy
- Numan Athletics
- Namco × Capcom (Monolith Soft)
- Project X Zone (Banpresto + Monolith Soft)
- Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch (Level5 + Studio Ghibli)
- Pac-Man
- Pocket Zaurus (Japan-only, as Bandai Co. Ltd.)
- Point Blank AKA Gun Bullet Series (not the MMO FPS by Zepetto)
- Pole Position
- Prop Cycle
- Rally-X
- Razing Storm
- Ridge Racer
- Rise Of The Incarnates
- Rolling Thunder
- Scarlet Nexus
- Soul Series (Soul Edge, Soul Calibur)
- Seven: Molmorth no Kiheitai (PS2, 2000, obscure 2D turn-based RPG with Vanillaware-level art direction)
- Splatterhouse (previously Bottle Rocket)
- Starblade
- Summer Lesson
- Solatorobo (CyberConnect2)
- Summon Night
- Taiko no Tatsujin
- Tales Series (Namco Tales Studio)
- Tamagotchi (the original toys and myriad licensed games)
- Tekken
- Time Crisis
- Time Crisis 4 (Nex Entertainment)
- Urban Reign
- The Outfoxies
- The Tower of Druaga
- The Quest Of Ki (Game Studio)
- Xevious
- Xenosaga (Monolith Soft)
- Vampire Night
- Yumeria (Only in Japan, anime by Studio Deen)
Online Games
Published Games (different developer)
- Armored Core V (FromSoftware)
- Baten Kaitos (tri-Crescendo + Monolith Soft)
- Crisis Beat (Soft Machine)
- CV: Casting Voice (Crafts & Meisters)
- Ehrgeiz (Dream Factory, published by BNG for Arcades only)
- Fighting Layer (Arika)
- Knight's Contract (Game Republic)
- Kosodate Quiz More: My Angel (Microvision).
- Magna Carta (Softmax)
- Panzer Bandit (Fill-in Cafe)
- Weaponlord (Visual Concepts)
- We Cheer (Machatin + Land Ho)
Published Games by Western Developers
- Chroma Squad (Behold Studios)
- Divinity: Original Sin II (Except for PC, which is self-published by Larian Studios)
- The Dark Pictures Anthology (Supermassive Games)
- Dead to Rights
- Enslaved: Odyssey to the West (Ninja Theory)
- Get Even (The Farm 51)
- Inversion (Saber Interactive)
- Impact Winter
- Kill Switch
- Project CARS (Slightly Mad Studios)
- Little Nightmares (Tarsier Studios)
- Little Nightmares II
- Metal Marines
- RAD
- Sniper Elite
- Sigma Star Saga (WayForward Technologies)
- Twin Mirror (Dontnod Entertainment)
Licensed Games:
- Afro Samurai
- Another Century's Episode (Currently holds copyright with games first published by Banpresto)
- Captain Tsubasa: Rise of New Champions
- City Shrouded in Shadow
- Code Geass: Lost Colors
- Chubby Cherub
- Devilman
- Disney Magical World 1 and 2 (Published by Nintendo in Western markets)
- Doraemon: Story of Seasons
- Dragon Ball games:
- Eureka Seven
- Fast & Furious Crossroads
- Full Metal Panic! Fight Who Dares Wins
- Game Center CX: Arino's Challenge (alt. title: Retro Game Challenge)pub
- Gate: Brave Scramble
- Godzilla (with Tamashii Nations providing 3D character models)
- Golgo 13 (For the light gun games made from 1999-2001, made by 8ing/Raizing)
- Various Gundam games:
- Gilligan's Island
- Heroes Phantasia
- InuYasha: The Secret of the Cursed Mask
- JoJo's Bizarre Adventure games:
- J-Stars Victory VS
- Jump Force
- Kamen Rider Climax Heroes
- Little Witch Academia: Chamber of Time (Aplus Games)
- Marvel Disk Wars Avengers Ultimate Heroes
- Macross 30: The Voice that Connects the Galaxy
- Macross Frontier Trilogy
- Megami Tensei
- Megami Tensei II
- My Hero One's Justice
- Naruto games:
- Neon Genesis Evangelion 2
- One Piece games:
- One Punch Man: A Hero Nobody Knows
- Pokémon:
- Pokkén Tournament, a Pokémon themed fighting game from the Tekken creators
- New Pokémon Snap
- Pretty Cure games from Yes! Pretty Cure 5 Go Go: Zenin Shu Go! Dream Festival onwards
- Tousouchuu Shijou Saikyou No Hunter Tachi Kara Nigekire
- Sentouchu Densetsu No Shinobi To Survival Battle
- Chou Tousouchuu Atsumare Saikyou No Tousousha Tachi
- Chou Sentou Chuu Kyuukyoku No Shinobu To Battle Player Choujou Kessen
- Sailor Moon: Another Story
- Sailor Zombie
- Saint Seiya Ougon Densetsu (TOSE)
- Spawn: Armageddon
- Star Trek: The Video Game
- Super Sentai: Battle Ranger Cross
- "BAAAAN-DAI NAMCO GAAAAAAAAAAAMES!!!"
- Power Rangers games as well
- "BAAAAN-DAI NAMCO GAAAAAAAAAAAMES!!!"
- Super Smash Bros. (With Sora Ltd., subsidiary of Nintendo)
- Snoopy vs. the Red Baron
- Star Wars (1987 Famicom game)
- Sword Art Online
- Sword Art Online: Infinity Moment
- Sword Art Online: Hollow Fragment
- Sword Art Online: End World.
- Sword Art Online Re: Hollow Fragment
- Sword Art Online: Lost Song
- Sword Art Online: Hollow Realization
- Accel World VS Sword Art Online: Millennium Twilight
- Sword Art Online: Memory Defrag
- Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet
- Sword Art Online: Integral Factor
- Super Heroine Chronicle
- Super Robot Wars (Banpresto + Winkysoft)
- Tiger & Bunny
- Toaru Majutsu to Kagaku no Ensemble
- Tokumei Sentai Go-Busters
- Victorious (Published by D3 Publisher in North America and by Bandai Namco themselves in Europe)
- Victorious: Time to Shine
- Victorious: Hollywood Arts Debut
- Victorious: Taking the Lead
- Wangan Midnight
- Yu Yu Hakusho
- Zatch Bell!
Outside Games/Franchises published by Bandai Namco in a set region:
Japan
- Dark Seed (Dark Seed II via Sega Saturn port only)
- Disney Infinity (The first, 2.0 and 3.0, the latter two only released on Playstation home consoles)
- Enter the Matrix
- Gex (Released as Spin Tail)
- Hellgate: London (Only in 2007 before EA republished it in 2008).
Asia
- Agents of Mayhem (Can be purchased either through PSNnote or through a physical copy)
- Batman: Arkham Asylum (Demo only in Asia, full game released by Eidos Interactive and later by WB Interactive except in Japan by Square Enix)
- Dead Island (via Definitive Edition compilation)
- Dead Island: Riptide (via Definitive Edition compilation)
- Deus Ex: Mankind Divided (Only when purchased through PSN)note
- Final Fantasy X (Only for the Nintendo Switch through physical copy or Eshop)
- Final Fantasy X-2 (Only for the Nintendo Switch through physical copy or Eshop)
- Guilty Gear -STRIVE-
- Hitman (2016) (Only when the bundle is purchased through PSN)note (As of 2018, it's not available on the PSN after its 2017 release
. This is most likely due to Square Enix surrendering the rights of the games back to IO Interactive.)
- Just Cause 3 (Can be purchased either through PSNnote or through a physical copy)
- Just Cause 4 (Can be purchased either through PSNnote or through a physical copy)
- Marvel's Avengers (Only when purchased through PSN)note
- Murdered: Soul Suspect (Only when purchased through PSN)note
- Rise of the Tomb Raider (Can be purchased either through PSNnote or through a physical copy)
- Sleeping Dogs (Available via PC through physical copy)
- Shadow of the Tomb Raider (Can be purchased either through PSNnote or through a physical copy)
- Thief (2014) (Only when purchased through PSN)note
North America
- Ghost Hunter
- Enemy Front
- Lords of the Fallen note
- Sherlock Holmes: The Devil's Daughter
- Shinobido (For Shinobido 2)
Europe
- Cyberpunk 2077
- Dead Head Fred
- Demon's Souls
- Earth Defense Force 2017 (Only when purchased through PSN.note )
- Earth Defense Force: Insect Armageddon
- Earth Defense Force 2025 (Only when purchased through PSN.note )
- PAW Patrol: On A Roll!
- Guilty Gear -STRIVE-
- Matt Hazard: Blood Bath & Beyond (As of 2018, it's not available on PSN)note
- Shinobido (For Shinobido 2)
- The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings
- The Talos Principle note
- Victorious: Taking the Lead
Oceania
- Cyberpunk 2077
- Dead Head Fred
- Demon's Souls
- Earth Defense Force 2017 (Only when purchased through PSN.note )
- Earth Defense Force: Insect Armageddon
- Earth Defense Force 2025 (Only when purchased through PSN.note )
- Matt Hazard: Blood Bath & Beyond (As of 2018, it's not available on PSN)note
- Shinobido (For Shinobido 2)
- The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings
- The Talos Principle note
Shows and movies produced (in whole or in part) by Bandai Namco:
See also Bandai Namco Pictures, and Fox Kids (thanks to Power Rangers, many other FK shows created or dubbed by Saban Entertainment had their merch handled by Bandai, like Xyber 9: New Dawn).- Accel World
- Appare-Ranman!
- Buddy Complex
- Captain Earth
- Cross Ange
- Dog Days
- Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods
- Eureka Seven
- GATE
- Heroman
- JoJo's Bizarre Adventure (2012 series onward)*
- M3: The Dark Metal (Co-creators with Satelight)
- The Magnificent Kotobuki
- Megalobox
- Obsolete
- Oreimo
- Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures
- Space Dandy
- Star Driver
- Sword Art Online
- The IDOLM@STER.KR
Subsidiaries
- Actas
- Ashi Productions (former; 2001-2005)
- Bandai Entertainment
- Banpresto
- D3 Publisher
- Sunrise
- Bandai Namco Pictures
- Studio Dub (branded as Bandai Namco Pictures Iwaki Studio)
- Bandai Namco Pictures
- Tsuburaya Productions (co-owned with Fields Corporation)
- Toei Animation (Bandai Namco is a minority stockholder)
Tropes associated with Bandai Namco
- Coca-Pepsi, Inc.: Both Bandai and Namco were big companies before the merger, having each one owning various absorved and third-party companies.
- Fan Nickname:
- Players of Namco's Banapassport-enabled arcade games sometimes refer to the card as a "Bananapassport" or just a "Bananapass".
- Namco itself is derisively referred to as "Scamco" by those who feel that they undertake shady methods of milking players of their money.