Bandai Namco is a Japanese game company primarily known for publishing the Pac-Man and Tekken games, both selling 155 million units altogether, making Bandai Namco a household name. They also helped publish the award-winning Elden Ring, selling 30 million copies worldwide. As of recently, Bandai Namco has failed to deliver popular, original games, so what happened?
Bandai Namco saw early success when making its own Intellectual Properties (IPs), or original franchises, such as Ace Combat (1995), Soulcalibur (1998) and Tales of the Abyss in the early 2000s, each having their own die-hard and dedicated fanbases. When playing these games, the care and passion put into them can be felt, especially since video games aren’t as mainstream as they are now and they existed without the pressure of corporate stakeholders.
Also, in the early 2000s, Bandai had started experimenting with publishing anime games like the Naruto Storm series and Dragon Ball games, with both being major hits at the time, selling 4 million copies combined in an era when people didn’t have access to consoles. With this success, they continued to release anime games and their success was clear.
From 2015 to 2017, Bandai Namco’s best era for games arose, as they kept their existing IPs by releasing Tekken 7, often regarded as the best in the franchise, and helped publish the Dark Souls games. This was also a big era for anime games, releasing Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4 and Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2, both being their biggest anime games and widely loved, selling 22 million copies total. However, in 2019, their downfall would start.
In 2019, Bandai Namco published Jump Force, an anime crossover fighting game featuring some of the biggest anime like “Naruto”, “One Piece”, “Bleach” and “Dragon Ball”. The game greatly underperformed, selling only 5 million copies worldwide, but still making a profit. This is when Bandai Namco realized they could publish horrible games and still widen their pockets, as long as they were tied to a popular anime IP..
Today, they continue this pattern. Notably Jujutsu Kaisen: Cursed Clash would sell just 2 million copies worldwide and had the highest return rate with 100,000 copies returned in the first 4 days. Moreover, CODE VEIN II initially sold well but received super low reception.
But why anime games only? Since they are only the publisher of anime games most of the time, they end up making a massive profit from anime fans who pour money into these games.
However, this negatively impacts the video game space because Bandai Namco controls a lot of the anime market, therefore overshadowing other developers who pour a lot of heart into their craft.
Beyond Bandai Namco, CyberConnect2 is another producer of successful anime games. However, as of 2020, CyberConnect2 has stopped making as many games, leaving Bandai Namco at the top once more, continuing their money stream.
Furthermore, due to the popular anime produced as a game by Bandai Namco, such as “My Hero Academia” or “Sword Art Online”, it is less likely a well-done anime game from another developer will ever be produced.
Ultimately, Bandai Namco should be held responsible for the failures of these games. The producers allow incomplete games to be published and sold for the full price, ranging anywhere from $20 to $70. This is unfair to the rest of the video game industry that is overshadowed, and to those who waste their time and money playing IPs that only leave them disappointed.