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Namco Bandai On Their Partnership With Ni No Kuni Developer Level-5

By Spencer . October 28, 2011 . 1:01pm

Namco Bandai On Their Partnership With Ni No Kuni Developer Level 5One of Namco Bandai’s strategies for Western expansion is partnering with other Japanese developers. In 2009, they made a deal with Game Republic to distribute titles such as Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom and Knights Contract. This year Namco Bandai partnered with From Software to bring Dark Souls and Armored Core V overseas.

 

Their latest partnership is with one Japan’s fastest growing developers, Level-5. Namco Bandai will publish Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch in North America and Europe in 2012. (Read our hands-on impressions here!)

 

"For us, if you look at the course of what we’ve done last year, we’ve narrowed our slate to really good titles. We focused on less is more," said Carlson Choi, Vice President of Marketing at Namco Bandai, in a Siliconera interview. "When started talking to Level-5 — look guys we have a great opportunity. We have a great team in the States and we can maximize the potential of the game in the West. Those are the kinds of things we brought to the table because at the end of the day we want to bring the best games to the market."

 

Since deals with Game Republic and From Software were multi-title agreements, I asked Choi if Namco Bandai plans on publishing other games from Level-5. "That is still in discussion," he replied.

 

Level-5 revealed a number of titles earlier this month such as Guild01, Fantasy Life, and Youkai Watch, and Time Travelers.


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  • Solomon_Kano

    Yes, Namco Bandai, less is indeed more — unless we’re talking about Tales.

    But I’m glad that Namdai is bringing this over. Their want for bringing quality games to the west matches up nicely with my want for quality games to leave Japan lol.

    • LynxAmali

      Or Gundam games. Or .hack.

      Still hoping this leads to Danball license and release.

      • Solomon_Kano

        Yea, I would love if they’d start bringing us Gundam games again.

        As for .hack… what would they be bringing us? We got 7 out of 9 games (all but the ORPG and the PSP one, and I heard that the PSP one wasn’t very good anyway) and further entries would depend on CC2.

        I hope they bring us Danball, too — I’ve wanted that since it was first shown several years back. Heck, let’s just hope this partnership continues on to Time Travelers while we’re at it.

        • kroufonz

          maybe they could bring the upcoming .hack movie hybrid which supposed to include some kind of hack game in it.

          • Solomon_Kano

            I really hope they do. I wonder what the game will be. I’m imagining it’ll be a new game, but I’d be just as happy with an old one.

  • Tristan H

    I wonder what the next shall be…Little Battlers :D, jk.

    But nice for Namco Bandai, I really enjoy how up and coming they are, with dedication and delivering compelling content that we want, they are swiftly rising to being a top video game publisher thats managed to thrive beyond animu licensed titles.

    • Solomon_Kano

      Wait, no joke, I actually want them to bring us Little Battlers lol.

  • Gatchaman1

    so bring over Gundam Extreme VS, Super Robot Wars Og 2nd, Saint Seiya, tales of Xillia, Tales of Heroes, and Gundam Senki

  • http://profiles.google.com/dnlblue Daniel blue

    Related: Does anyone have any news about Tales of Graces F? They promised it a good time ago didn’t they?

    Anyway, Ninokuni seems very promising. Keeping my eyes on it.

    • Phlo

      English gameplay videos showed up on Gametrailers within the last month, and they promised an early 2012 release date at that time.

    • http://www.siliconera.com Spencer

      They promised it for 2012 and it’s coming we spoke to Namco about Tales too and shared that information earlier this week.

  • http://www.youtube.com/user/Kamek20xxExtra?feature=mhee Michael Stevens

    Level-5 and Namco Bandai working together? You should tell right off the bat right now that this game will not fail to give so much entertainment, it will sell a lot (well, I bet it will), and it must be one of Level-5′s biggest release. It will just be a success IMO. Here’s to hoping so as well.

  • nyobzoo

    Hey Namco, how about bringing your games over first before someone else ‘s

    • http://twitter.com/Paradox_me Paradox me

      Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology
      Eternal Sonata (360/PS3)
      Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation
      Tekken 6
      Soulcalibur IV
      Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World
      Tales of Vesperia (360)
      Tales of Graces f
      Tales of the Abyss 3D

      In all honesty, we aren’t doing that badly. Sure, I would have liked Innocence, Hearts and Vesperia PS3, but Graces f is great and I wouldn’t be surprised if we get Innocence R and/or Tales of Xillia as well.

      Besides, we don’t know just how many publishers were knocking on Level-5′s door (or vice versa) about Ni no Kuni PS3. That is not a game I want to miss out on, so in this case I’m glad Namco Bandai went with someone else’s game.

      • kroufonz

        Still quite bad list, outside their usual mainstream franchise (tekken/RR/AC/SC/DWG) or mainstream anime (naruto/dbz) we got almost none come to the west (not even count portable stuff),even some of the mainstream stuff get localized due to influence of their partner like ms with vesperia or kt with DWG.

        at least xseed, nisa,d3 manage to localize one or two namco bandai title, I wish namco bandai could try to offer franchise they don’t have plan to localize to niche publisher.

  • kroufonz

    I wonder how far western bamco know about their Japanese stuff?
    do they ever consider to try release their more niche stuff with limited release, no dub just give subtitle? or PSN release for PSP stuff?

    On PS3 alone they still have a lot of title unconfirmed for localization , at least they could say yes or no, it is amazing how when they publishing others game it could get confirmation for western release even before the game released in japan, yet some of their own game take long time to just get confirmation and even much longer to get release date (like tales of graces F)

    Some PS3 title:
    -Gundam Extreme Versus
    -Gundam Senki
    -2nd SRW OG
    -Saint Seiya Senki
    -One Piece musou
    -Haruhi Tsuisou
    -idolm@ster 2
    -Tales of Xillia
    -Tales of Vesperia (PS3)

    I don’t even count the portable stuff because it’s gonna be huge list,
    there is also some like Macross A.C.E or non OG SRW , difficult to localize be cause macross but (i believe nothing impossible since capcom can localize tatsunoko vs Capcom )

    • Joanna

      I wouldn’t count on really niche things like Idolmaster, Super Robot Wars, or anime licensed games in general. Not many big name publishers release those. Buy hey, weirder things have happened. I’m personally just glad that Namco is at least taking a small step with the Tales of games and RPGs. And who knows, if Tales of proves successful, maybe Namco USA will not be so reluctant to release more of their Japanese catalog here.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_472QBVARRYERRGHATSUGCVCTTA Ian

    Okay i’l be waiting until 2012 my ps3 still hungry for RPG :O

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Aaron-Cameron/100001055122940 Aaron Cameron

    guys notice he didnt say Gundam Age >.>

    • kroufonz

      he didn’t even say any GUNDAM at all:P

      • landlock

        Seeing how the last Gundam game flopped in the US/Europe why would they?

  • http://thrust-the-sky.deviantart.com/ WildArms

    More naruto and dragonball! mwahahah!, at least they bringing another rpg -_-

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_J24UY7QAEKQY576PHZYS3EN6BA Celine

    I really, REALLY need Youkai Watch and Danboru Senki as well >__<

    But Ni no Kuni is so high on my to buy list it broke through the ceiling and rocketed into outer space.

  • http://twitter.com/Cudgeon Raji

    Namco Bandai isn’t such a great publisher. If they were we wouldn’t still be waiting for some of the “new” Tale Games, while the PS3 rerelease that would already be translated probably never happens.
    But yeah, he just talked mabushi (Marketing BullShit) anyway.

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