Their overseas business has become ”even more critical,” and this embraces that. Namco achieved 24% market share in Japan last fiscal, a sign of ”impressive leadership”.
They want that leadership magic to influence the EU and US markets. Upcoming titles from Namco include Tekken Tag Tournament 2, Dark Souls for PC and Star Trek.
”We wanted to unite our overseas organisation under one leadership,” said Namco Bandai Games VP Carlson Choi. “That way we can have one united front as a Western organisation to better serve our consumer out here. It is a continuation of our direction, where as a company the overseas business becomes even more critical.”
“Over the last year we have been beginning our transformation of the overseas business, making sure that we are not only bringing East to West content but also sub-developing and bringing content from the West that can propagate to the East.”
“In Japan for the fiscal year, Namco Bandai achieved 24 per cent market share. That shows impressive leadership. And we are asking: how do we transfer that leadership position across Europe and the States?”
UK marketing director Lee Kirton added: “We work as close as possible with our US team to ensure there is a global message and strategy. This is being proven with franchises such as Tekken Tag Tournament 2 and Star Trek.”
Japanese publishers have lamented the trouble of bringing in revenue these days because of the strong Yen greatly diminishing the impact of oversea sales. They’re also very keen to get a foothold in the US and EU markets because of the falling value of the Japanese video games market.