GamesMaster Feature: Namco

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Published on October 28, 2020 12:00:04 AM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHYn4FpM0_o

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Soul Edge (1995)

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S06E08

Rage Racer
Soul Edge
Time Crisis

Namco Ltd.[a] (stylized as NAMCO)[b] is a former Japanese developer and publisher of arcade and home console video games, originally headquartered in Ōta, Tokyo. Several international divisions were established, including Namco America in Santa Clara, California, Shanghai Namco in mainland China, and Namco Enterprises Asia in Hong Kong.

Namco was founded by Masaya Nakamura as Nakamura Seisakusho[c] on June 1, 1955, beginning as a producer of coin-operated amusement rides for Japanese department store roof gardens, seeing success with making children's rides for the Mitsukoshi chain. Renamed Nakamura Manufacturing in 1959, the company purchased the struggling Japanese division of Atari from Nolan Bushnell in 1974 and began releasing their games in Japan, where they quickly became one of the leading game companies in Asia. The acquisition inspired Namco to produce their own video games in-house, beginning with Gee Bee in 1978. Namco released their first major hit Galaxian a year later, followed by Pac-Man in 1980 — the latter has since become the most successful arcade game of all time and one of the highest-grossing video games of all time.

In February 2005, Namco announced they would merge with Bandai to form Bandai Namco Holdings. The merge was finalized on September 25, creating Japan's third-largest video game entity by revenue and the seventh largest by revenue in the world. Both operated independently under the new holdings company until March 31, 2006, where their video game operations were merged to form Namco Bandai Games. The original Namco name was spun-off into a new company the same day, which handled the amusement park and arcade center operations of Bandai Namco Holdings. It was renamed to Bandai Namco Amusement during a corporate restructuring on April 1, 2018.

Namco produced several critically and commercially successful franchises, including Pac-Man, Galaxian, Tekken, Ace Combat, Dig Dug, Soulcalibur, Xevious, Ridge Racer and Tales, and was one of the world's most prolific video game companies. In the past, it operated several arcade centers and theme parks, alongside production of films, toys and speech-impairment devices. Namco is remembered for being one of the most important and influential video game companies in history, with several of their games being listed in many "greatest games of all time" lists by publications.