Namco Bandai Opens Vancouver Studio

StewShearerOld

Geekdad News Writer
Jan 5, 2013
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Namco Bandai Opens Vancouver Studio



Namco Bandai have opened a new North American studio to expand its social and mobile game development.

Namco Bandai, the publisher behind popular titles like Tekken and Dark Souls, has opened a new office in Vancouver, Canada. The new studio, which will employ a staff of about thirty, is being established with the hope of further cementing the company's presence in North America, while also expanding on its development of mobile and social games.

Namco Bandai's decision to estbalish a presence in the city was precipitated, in part, by lobbying from Ed Fast, Abbotsford MP and Minister of International trade. "[We] again drove home the fact that Canada is a place that should be their gateway into North America ... clearly they listened," Fast said. "Hopefully the success they experience right here in Vancouver will translate to further job opportunities right across the country." That hope is something that could very well translate into reality. Speaking through an interpreter Namco Bandai president Hajime Nakatani commented that the market in North America is "quite big" and that the company has "room to grow." Vancouver in particular may be the ideal place for that growth. Home to the Centre for Digital Media and its robust digital education program, some thirty percent of CDM graduates find work in the game industry. The potential advantages of this "cluster" of trained professionals wasn't lost on Namco Bandai.

The entrance of the publisher is likely to be a long term boon for the city, especially following a reorganization by Electronic Arts that led <a href=http://www.vancouversun.com/business/Electronic+Arts+closing+PopCap+Quicklime+latest+layoffs+Vancouver+gaming+sector/8296454/story.html>the closure of several Vancouver based subsidiaries in April. Altogether, it looks like a winning situation for everyone involved and, hopefully, Namco Bandai and Vancouver will enjoy a long and healthy relationship.

Source: <a href=http://www.vancouversun.com/technology/personal-tech/player+Vancouver+gaming+scene/8756152/story.html>Vancouver Sun


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PedroSteckecilo

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Feb 7, 2008
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Well that's cool... always nice to see the Canadian Game Industry expand... even if Calgary is still a wasteland if you want to work in Videogames.
 

rasputin0009

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Feb 12, 2013
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PedroSteckecilo said:
Well that's cool... always nice to see the Canadian Game Industry expand... even if Calgary is still a wasteland if you want to work in Videogames.
A quick 2 hour drive north to Edmonton from Calgary solves that wasteland problem. Calgary will always be a software wasteland when Edmonton is a lot cheaper.
 

PedroSteckecilo

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Feb 7, 2008
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rasputin0009 said:
PedroSteckecilo said:
Well that's cool... always nice to see the Canadian Game Industry expand... even if Calgary is still a wasteland if you want to work in Videogames.
A quick 2 hour drive north to Edmonton from Calgary solves that wasteland problem. Calgary will always be a software wasteland when Edmonton is a lot cheaper.
Nuuuu! I don't want all my friends who want to work in videogames to move to Edmonton!

Also it's more like a 3 Hour drive if you aren't breaking the speed limit and the only two Game Studios I know of in Edmonchuck are Rocket Powered and Bioware...
 

ecoho

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Jun 16, 2010
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Kheapathic said:
The president of Namco Bandai actually recognizes the western audience. I just hope this means what they make will be more likely to receive a release in North America. I like to think they've noticed a while ago with all the clamoring for more Tales localizations. Now I just hope their new office can be what they need.
all they need to do is release the japan only version of tales of vesparia here and its all good:)

OT: so the real reason were getting a ps3 upgrade of tales of symphonia is cause they finally got their heads out of their asses and discovered we in the west love their games!


captcha: left shoe

what the hell do you want with my left shoe?!
 

Charli

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Nov 23, 2008
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*Blink* Oh...good. Will that help the distribution of the Tales Series? Because that's all I really care about from them at the moment.
 

Strain42

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Sooo...wait, does this basically mean they might be localizing more games that might not make it over?

Because I know a certain Digimon port for the 3DS that could REALLY use some attention right now.
 

ecoho

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Jun 16, 2010
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Kheapathic said:
ecoho said:
Kheapathic said:
The president of Namco Bandai actually recognizes the western audience. I just hope this means what they make will be more likely to receive a release in North America. I like to think they've noticed a while ago with all the clamoring for more Tales localizations. Now I just hope their new office can be what they need.
all they need to do is release the japan only version of tales of vesparia here and its all good:)

OT: so the real reason were getting a ps3 upgrade of tales of symphonia is cause they finally got their heads out of their asses and discovered we in the west love their games!


captcha: left shoe

what the hell do you want with my left shoe?!
I gave up on them localizing Vesperia and just imported it. I would've liked them to do so, but there was a massive fan backlash which pretty much stopped them.
what fan backlash? the only reason people were pissed at them to my knowledge was that they didn't release the whole game to the west(which was a pretty BS move)