Namco Bandai Discusses Strategy for '07
We caught up with the recently promoted Makoto Iwai, Executive Vice
President and Chief Operating Officer at Namco Bandai Games
America, to talk about the publisher's recent merger, its approach
to the Japanese and Western markets, and more.
GameDaily BIZ: First of all, congratulations to Mr. Iwai and Mr.
Nakata on their promotions. How do these moves reinforce Namco
Bandai's strategy for success in 2007 and beyond?
Makoto Iwai: Namco Bandai Games' focus for 2007 is to open up new
paths for original content as well as to continue launching new
chapters in our most beloved franchises. With my strong background
in development and Mr. Nakata's experience in finance and
operations, we plan to lead a tight ship at Namco Bandai by paying
attention to the most important aspects of a successful interactive
video game company, Development, Creativity and Organization.
BIZ: Last year Namco and Bandai completed its merger. How would you
describe the integration - has it been as smooth as you would
like?
MI: Anytime you're dealing with an integration between two
companies as large as Namco and Bandai you are bound to have some
bumps along the road... Fortunately, with an incredible amount of
cooperation between everyone involved, we were able to smooth out a
lot of these kinks last year in order to focus on our strategies
and goals for 2007. There is no doubt that there were challenges we
had to face this last year, especially concerning the amount and
variety of titles we had coming out when we combined the two
companies in early 2006.
By finding ways to utilize both companies strengths—Namco for its
strong development and well known franchises and Bandai for its
long list of anime and toy licensed franchises- we were able to
overcome these challenges in 2006. We feel very confident moving
into 2007 with a clean slate and a long list of impressive titles
that are going to blow the competition out of the water!
BIZ: How exactly is Namco Bandai leveraging the respective
strengths of what was once two separate companies?
MI: I began to answer this question in my last answer but let me
elaborate a bit more on this...When the integration occurred, Namco
was known for its solid and extremely popular franchises such as
Tekken, Ace Combat and Soul Calibur, while Bandai came in with the
strong anime and toy licenses including Naruto, Tamagotchi, and
Gundam...
Although these are very different line-ups, the one thing that both
these companies share is their continued focus on creativity and
solid quality titles. Whether it was the establishment of some of
the most respected fighting game franchises on the market or the
creation of one of the largest franchises in Japan, both companies
were able to become key players in the video game industry.
As each company rose to prominence, each established their own
means of making sure creative and successful products were
continued to be made. I'll be honest with you, Namco and Bandai
each had their own styles of creating great products but their
underlying values were the same, which of course has been the key
aspect in this successful integration.
With a wonderful and challenging year under our belt, we feel very
good about 2007 and beyond as we continue to evaluate our strengths
and methods in order to capitalize on this integration.
Now, from a business standpoint, the strengths of the integration
are obvious. Bandai has a very prominent position in Japan and
Namco has a very prominent position in the United States. This
merger now allows to us to be competitive on a global market scale.
We're ready for the challenge.
How are we using those strengths of each? Well, we're talking a lot
with each other, we're making sure franchises, like Naruto, are
given proper attention, we're looking to establish new IPs, we're
still looking at the PC market and the list goes on and on. What
I'm saying is we no longer want to be thought of as two companies
that came together, we are now one company with a ton to throw on
the table and we plan to make the video game market our own in 2007
and beyond!
BIZ: Do you foresee other Japanese game companies merging in the
future? Is this inevitable?
MI: You know, I'm quite sure a number of people are going to be
looking at what we are doing to see what comes from it. We're
hoping to influence their decisions in a positive way. Is it
inevitable? I don't know.
I do know that you need to diversify your properties to ensure
you're maximizing their potential. We're in a position to do
that.
BIZ: The Japanese game industry finally had a nice turnaround year
thanks in large part to the DS. Are you encouraged by this? How
would you describe the state of the industry in Japan?
MI: We are very pleased and encouraged by the DS performance right
now and are happy that we have been able to tap into that success
in both Japan and the U.S. Our DS titles typically perform very
well and we're always making sure we keep a close eye on the
Japanese market to ensure we react appropriately with future titles
here in the U.S.
As for the state of industry in Japan, it's in a very interesting
position. It's obvious that the handheld market is moving in a
positive direction, which means there is still potential for other
handhelds to do well over there. However, the console market right
now seems to be showing a very clear direction and we're hoping to
capitalize on that direction whenever we have the chance. We hope
to introduce some titles this year that might just do that.
