Bandai Namco want to double in size through new IPs and more PC games

Little Nightmares first look

Bandai Namco, publishers of Dark Souls, Ni No Kuni, Project Cars, Tekken and many more, are looking to double in size. Their strategy will see them focus on new audiences, including on PC, and look to bring new intellectual properties to gaming. 

What can we look forward to in the meantime? Here’s our list of upcoming PC games.

That’s according to Hervé Hoerdt, Bandai Namco’s European VP of marketing and digital.

Bandai Namco are “a Japanese-centric company, and most of our content right now is coming from Japan,” says Hoerdt. Bandai Namco know that, as they look to grow, they’ll need to target different audiences – that means new IPs, new platforms, and a big focus on the European market.

“Japanese companies mostly develop on Nintendo and PlayStation, but more and more we have the Xbox, especially for the UK, and PC. We also want our fans to enjoy localised games, so we’re doing more games in languages like Polish, Russian and Arabic.”

Bandai Namco are aiming to enter the European market by building long-term relationships with a handful of key studios, cultivating high-quality new IPs from the ground up. Hoerdt cites the creepy narrative adventureLittle Nightmares– which recently passed 500,000 sales -and their new partnership with Life is Strange devs Dontnod as examples of this strategy.

“This might be one or two games, or one title as a game-as-a-service, but also – and I think this is more important as an entertainment company – to put it beyond video games and look at it in 360-degrees,” says Hoerdt. “This means things like comics, toys, plush, board games, movies, series and so on. We’ve already been talking to Hollywood studios at E3 for some IPs, so this is the kind of vision we have.”

Bandai Namco are aiming for quality over quantity, with just three to five narrative adventure games like Little Nightmares in the next five years.

“We see untapped markets everywhere, and even from the simplest business perspective, you want to find something new. We have the legacy, the creativity and the DNA to achieve that.”

Check out the full interview over on MCV.