Bandai Namco is best known for its output of licensed games, especially those adapted from popular Japanese IPs like Naruto and Dragon Ball. These include successful games like Dragon Ball FighterZ, as well as upcoming games like Jump Force. The publisher also owns a bunch of original IPs like the Tekken, Soul Calibur, and Ace Combat franchises, as well as upcoming releases like Code Vein. However, it looks like it has much loftier ambitions, with plans for a future where 50 percent of its total games output is new IP.
Speaking with GamesIndustry.biz, Bandai Namco European digital and marketing VP Hervé Hoerdt said: “We want 50 percent of our business to come from new IPs. Why is this? First, it’s to build a sustainable business because most of our IPs are franchises and licenses. To be a sustainable business, you need to have your own IP; every publisher is building their own IP. The other thing is the IP we have are always reaching the same marketing segment, like fighting and anime, but there’s much more to do in the video game market, much bigger genres.”
Additionally, Hoerdt said that the developer/publisher also wants 50 percent of its games to be developed outside of Japan, as most of its games are have always been developed by Japanese studios. This plan to diversify its content portfolio is a welcome one. Developing new IPs is a proven strategy, as PlayStation has shown over the past several years with games like God of War and Horizon Zero Dawn. However, Hoerdt adds that all of this won’t be achieved in the near future, but it should “happen within the next decade.”
Gamers should also be glad to hear that they will probably be seeing their favorite Bandai Namco games adapted into other forms of media entertainment, which includes movies. Hoerdt explains that “narrative, story-driven, emotional journeys are something we want to exploit. We will actually own this IP, so we hope to exploit this with a movie and so on. That’s another reason why we wanted to do this.” In other related news, we will be seeing more of Bandai Namco’s unreleased games such as Soul Calibur 6, Ace Combat 7 and more at the upcoming Gamescom 2018.
