When a lot of publishers in the U.S. say a game is being released in America, they usually mention North America specifically. Of late, though, Bandai Namco have been including the term “the Americas” in a lot of their PR—meaning, they’re factoring territories like Latin America into their plans as well.
About two weeks ago, Bandai Namco held their annual Global Gamer’s Day event, which Siliconera attended. At the event, Namco discussed a number of their upcoming titles, but also touched upon their plans to further expand into these territories.
Namco say the market in these territories has grown by the year, and one of the big initiatives currently ongoing at the company is to expand into the rest of Latin America. Namco also aim to increase their partnerships with other companies.
One major arm of this expansion is the Naruto Shippuden anime, which will begin airing exclusively on PlayStation 3’s PlayTV this September. Additionally, Namco have partnered with PlayArte to distribute the movie and anime episode at a later point in time.
Another key partnership is with Toei Animation who are behind the One Piece and Dragon Ball Z anime series. Namco said that they will bring physical copies of the One Piece Unlimited World: Red game to Latin America as well.
Finally, Namco also mentioned Dark Souls II and Ranko Tsukigime’s Longest Day for Latin American release. In the case of Dark Souls II specifically, Bandai Namco said that feedback for the game in Latin America was excellent, and that Brazilian and Portuguese subtitles will be added to the game in a patch for PC, Xbox 360 and PS3 versions this month.
