Namco Networks

Namco Networks
Division (Defunct)
Industry Mobile game
Fate Merged with Bandai Namco Entertainment America
Founder Toshihiro Nagoshi
Defunct 2011 (2011)
Headquarters San Jose, California, United States
Owner Bandai Namco Holdings
Website namcogames.com

Namco Networks America, Inc. was a developer and publisher of small-scale games targeting the mobile and casual game markets. based in San Jose, California. It primarily published titles for feature phones in direct arrangements with cellphone carriers. Its iPod conversion of Pac-Man was one of the first batch of nine game titles for that platform,[1] and its licensed version of Scene It? Movies was possibly the first feature phone game in the North American market to feature downloadable streaming video content.[2]

History

The division started in 2003 as the mobile gaming arm of the arcade group Namco America and was spun off when that group was strategically acquired by Bandai Namco Holdings and renamed as Namco Networks to serve as its mobile games division. In mid 2004 the group only had four full-time staff positions and contracted game development out to a number of mobile developers. By 2007 it had built its own internal development and marketing group and the staff was well over 100, also employing a large contract QA arm. The shift in mobile publishing from carriers to app stores after introduction of the iPhone shifted the marketplace to the division's detriment. In November 2010, Namco Networks laid off 90 staffers and stated that more of the work would be shifted to its counterpart in Japan,[3] referring to the division of Bandai Namco Games that was once known as Bandai Networks prior to the merger. The company was merged with Namco Hometek to form what is now Bandai Namco Games America.

References

  1. ↑ "New games come to video-capable iPods". Macworld. Retrieved 2017-05-12.
  2. ↑ GameZone. "Scene It? The DVD Game Goes Mobile". Retrieved 2017-05-12.
  3. ↑ Namco Bandai to lay off 90 employees in the U.S. | VentureBeat
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