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Namco Bandai to acquire D3Publisher

By Brendan Sinclair, GameSpotPosted Feb 12, 2009 1:45 pm PT

Tekken publisher finds a willing partner in the company behind Puzzle Quest and Earth Defense Force 2017.

It's a buyer's market in the gaming industry these days, with numerous publishers financially struggling and dealing with depressed share prices. The proposed Square Enix acquisition of Eidos wasn't the only such union revealed today, given that Namco Bandai began its own attempt to purchase fellow Japanese firm D3Publisher.

D3 scored a hit in 2007 with the critically acclaimed Puzzle Quest.

In an announcement on its Japanese investor-relations site, Namco Bandai said that it had made a tender offer for D3Publisher shares. A D3 representative confirmed for GameSpot that Namco Bandai plans to acquire 100 percent of its Japanese parent company, D3 Inc., as well as subsidiaries D3Publisher of America, D3Publisher of Europe, and developer Vicious Cycle.

"D3Publisher is thrilled to join forces with [Namco Bandai] to further strengthen their position in the US and European marketplaces and continue to make quality games that gamers will enjoy," the representative said.

According to Namco Bandai, the offer is an attempt to expand its home-console game business while strengthening its mobile operations as well. The publisher also said that it is eager to expand its casual- and family-games business in Europe and North America.

D3Publisher is best known by US gamers for cult favorites such as Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords and Earth Defense Force 2017. For its part, Vicious Cycle has been establishing a name for itself with comic action games such as Dead Head Fred and the upcoming Eat Lead: The Return of Matt Hazard. In Japan, D3Publisher also boasts a long-running line of budget games known as The Simple series, as well as a robust mobile-phone gaming business.

32 Comments

  • RoyalRook09

    Posted Apr 14, 2009 12:12 am PT

    @thingta42
    What an idiot, do you even know how big of a tool D3 is? And they are publishers, not developers. D3 just destroyed one of their promising franchise: Puzzle Quest with Galactrix. They are dead in my eyes. This will be a horrible mistake to acquire an over valued D3 at this point on NB's part. Then again, NB and D3 belongs to each other, they are equally incompetent. I want them to fail faster, togather.

  • thingta42

    Posted Feb 13, 2009 11:56 pm PT

    Both are Very big Japanesse Developers. Enix has Titles such as Final Fantasy While Namco has Soul Series and Tekken.

    Why cant they Make a Merger like Activision and Blizzard did a while ago and become a Gaming Powerhouse?

  • Vash67

    Posted Feb 13, 2009 4:56 pm PT

    Is it just me, or does Bandai really think that Square is their rival? Square joins up with Enix, Bandai joins up with Namco. SquareEnix buys Taito and Eidos, NamcoBandai buys D3. I wouldn't be surprised if Bandai goes after another company to offset the addition of Eidos.

  • Jebril

    Posted Feb 13, 2009 4:46 pm PT

    Who else thinks that this could ruin Puzzle Quest cuz of how bad Namco Bandai usually is?

  • nintendoboy16

    Posted Feb 13, 2009 4:42 pm PT

    @CorruptGamerGX

    Yeah, I just found out that Tomy released a lot of Naruto for the DS and GBA in Japan, but for no other platform.

    But expecting more Naruto? For Nintendo platforms, I don't think so. Namco Bandai has always supported Sony more than anyone else. Even though D3 is with Namco Bandai, D3 betrayed Tomy.

    Unless Sega (a third party developer, which makes more with Nintendo) picks up the Naruto: Clash of Ninja franchise with Tomy. Clash of Ninja is screwed all thanks to Namco.

  • CorruptGamerGX

    Posted Feb 13, 2009 4:29 pm PT

    What a joke.

    I don't know why everyone is happy to see 2 companies that produce shovelware and overpriced DLC collide.

    And you need to learn how to count nintendoboy16. There are FAR more Tomy Naruto games published by D3 in the States than Bandai's own. Now that both companies are toghther, expect to see MORE Nauto titles than ever before.

  • lanmanna

    Posted Feb 13, 2009 9:36 am PT

    My first and only D3 game has been Bangai-O which is hard, but very fun!

    Are these mergers and buyouts going to continue? O_O

    Soon we will only have-
    Nintendo
    Microsoft
    Sony
    Sega
    EA
    Square-Enix
    Namco Bandai
    Capcom
    Activision
    THQ
    Ubisoft
    Koei-Tecmo

    Who will be next?

  • Noctobum

    Posted Feb 13, 2009 8:18 am PT

    Before I was against company mergers but recently I've had a change of heart.

    Merging companies can help each other financially as well as on the production level. Being able to work together and share strengths could benefit the gaming industry by giving us better quality games than in the past.

    I've never really played alot of Namco/Bandai games (save some Gundam games) but I wish them luck and looking forward to what they can come out with.

  • Generic_Dude

    Posted Feb 13, 2009 6:45 am PT

    Let's hope for a multi-platform follow up to EDF! W00t!

  • metalkid9

    Posted Feb 13, 2009 6:28 am PT

    theyre both crap, they belong to each other anyway

  • tekken220

    Posted Feb 13, 2009 5:45 am PT

    @nintendoboy16
    actually, namco bandai's naruto games are better than tomy's naruto games.

  • killakomando

    Posted Feb 13, 2009 12:33 am PT

    Dark Sector 2? I think so.

  • Yyin9564

    Posted Feb 12, 2009 11:42 pm PT

    meh... the last namco bandai game i cared about was one of the gundam games way back when... so this news isn't news to me... betcha this has absolutely no effect on Tekken wat so ever...

  • nintendoboy16

    Posted Feb 12, 2009 9:13 pm PT

    I have just about had it with Namco Bandai. They're milking the Naruto franchise worse than Tomy or Ubisoft. Their games haven't been as great like back when they were seperate, and now they take away D3.

  • a0me

    Posted Feb 12, 2009 8:32 pm PT

    @Masterx1220

    From Wikipedia:
    "Jump Superstars will not be released outside of Japan on account of cross-licensing issues created due to the distribution rights of the several different series being held by numerous anime and manga licensing companies."

    So, to answer your question: no.

  • Ovirew

    Posted Feb 12, 2009 8:12 pm PT

    While D3 seems to be holding on pretty well for the time being, I have to say that I haven't been really blown away by anything they have been involved in yet, so I don't know, I guess it's a good thing? Puzzle Quest was still a pretty interesting concept, so maybe they have some good ideas floating around, we'll see if anything comes out of this joint.

    Namco-Bandai has some pretty decent games, but I still kind of have this love/hate relationship with their work. I'd have to say it's mostly positive, but I think they could improve some things. Either way, this sounds like positive acquisition, so hopefully D3Publisher can bring some fresh ideas to NB.

    Sure are a lot of companies having to buy eachother these days though...gotta say it's kind of getting scary.

  • Masterx1220

    Posted Feb 12, 2009 8:11 pm PT

    does this mean that we could possibly see a game like oh say jump superstars here in the future

  • travisstaggs

    Posted Feb 12, 2009 7:52 pm PT

    I love Namco Bandai.

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