Bandai Namco Partners

Bandai Namco Partners (BNP), also known as Bandai Namco Australia, is an amalgamation of several former Atari (Infogrames) offices located in PAL territories, which were acquired beginning in 2009 by Bandai Namco Holdings. The acquisitions came on the heels of Atari's financial difficulties, which had begun to snowball in 2006. Atari and Namco had long maintained a cross-publishing relationship that can be traced back to the very origins of Namco, and Atari's liquidation of regional assets was a natural opportunity for Namco Bandai to gain a PAL distribution network.

Bandai Namco Partners
Formerly
Ozisoft Pty Ltd (1982–1987, 1998-2002)
Sega Ozisoft Pty Ltd (1987–1998)
Infogrames Australia Pty Ltd (2002–2003)
Atari Australia Pty Ltd (2003–2009)
Subsidiary
IndustryVideo games
Publishing
Founded1982 (1982)
Headquarters
Australia
OwnerBandai Namco Holdings
ParentSega (1987–1998)
Infogrames (1998[lower-alpha 1]–2009)
Bandai Namco Entertainment (2009–present)

Australia
former Ozisoft corporate logo

Bandai Namco Partners Australia Pty. Ltd. is a division serving Australia and New Zealand. Originally Ozisoft was established in 1982 in Sydney, Australia and Los Angeles, California by Kevin Bermeister and partner Mark Dyne. Ozisoft was one of the first interactive multimedia companies. In 1987, Ozisoft began representing Sega Enterprises Japan (now formally known as Sega Corporation) in Australia and New Zealand. During this period, Ozisoft released a variety of Sega consoles, including the hugely successful Sega Mega Drive. By 1990 Ozisoft was Australia's largest international software distributor.

Sega-Ozisoft distributed home entertainment and educational products and software in Australia and New Zealand such as Sega products plus software for PCs, Nintendo and Sony PlayStation. Mastertronics Group, distributed Sega video games in Europe. PF Magic is another Contender. Radica Games and Jakks Pacific notwithstanding. Pactronics & Imagineering. Sega Ozisoft owns 8 percent.

On the 6 May 1992, Sega Ozisoft Pty Ltd was established by Bermeister and Dyne. Sega Ozisoft has exclusively represented in Australia and New Zealand the world's largest and most foremost publishers including Virgin, Sierra, Viacom, Ocean, Accolade, Time Warner, Acclaim, MicroProse and Starwave. The Sega Ozisoft franchise is one of the most successful in the multimedia area. On the 31 March 1998, Sega relinquished its controlling share and the company reverted to the name Ozisoft Pty Ltd. On the 15 December 1998, Infogrames Entertainment SA acquired majority shareholding in Ozisoft Pty Ltd and On 15 April 2002, Infogrames acquired 100% ownership, and renamed OziSoft to Infogrames Australia Pty Ltd. On 8 May 2003, Infogrames Australia Pty Ltd changed to its most incarnation, Atari Australia Pty Ltd. Atari Australia's head office is located in Alexandria, Sydney.

Atari Australia has released industry leading titles including Metal Gear Solid, Tomb Raider, Colin McRae Rally, Driver, Unreal Tournament and Resident Evil.

On 7 July 2009, Atari Australia was completely acquired by Bandai Namco Holdings, and is no longer a subsidiary of Atari but rather one of Bandai Namco but the new company will still distribute Atari's titles in Australia.[1] Bandai Namco Holdings already had a 30% share in Atari's Australian subsidiary. Later in 2009 Bandai Namco Holdings acquired Atari's European operations outright in one swoop.

Notes
  1. Infogrames did not fully own Ozisoft until 2002.

References
  1. "Aussie Nintendo - Australia's Best Nintendo Coverage". Archived from the original on 2011-07-07. Retrieved 2009-07-09.
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