Bandai Namco Entertainment Inc. (BNEI) Formerly known as is the video game-focused subsidiary of the entertainment conglomerate Bandai Namco Holdings. It is well known for being a prolific video game publisher, its possession of many iconic gaming IPs inherited from Namco (e.g. Pac-Man), and its many gaming licenses for anime/toy IPs inherited from Bandai (e.g. Gundam, Digimon).
Formed after Bandai and Namco's 2005 merger, Bandai Namco Entertainment incorporates the video game development and production studios of Namco, Bandai, and Bandai's former subsidiary Banpresto. The Namco, Bandai, and Banpresto brands continued to be used on until 2014, when Bandai Namco made an effort to consolidate its "Bandai Namco" branding.note
BNEI owns two major game production studio subsidiaries:
- Bandai Namco Studios Inc. (BNSI): Founded in 2012, BNSI is the spiritual successor to Namco's game studios, Bandai Namco Studios inherited Namco's staff and continued development on their properties. Notably, they've inherited Namco's good relations with Nintendo, and develop a lot of high-profile Nintendo-published games.
- B.B. Studio Co., Ltd.: The spiritual successor to Bandai and Banpresto's game studios, B.B. Studio is formed in 2011 from a merger of Bandai Entertainment Company (Bandai's game studio) and Banpresoft (Banpresto's game studio). They primarily develop Bandai licensed games.
The company is not to be confused with Bandai Namco Amusement, a separate company under Bandai Namco Holdings that produces and operates arcade machines, arcade centers, and theme parks; it is a successor to Namco's arcade business, as well as the arcade game development studios of Bandai Namco Entertainment.
Games
Developed
These games were developed solely or primarily by Bandai Namco Studios.
Published by BNEI
- Ace Combat series (2006-present; series includes games only published by BNEI)
- Ace Combat Zero: The Belkan War (published the international versions, original Japanese version was developed & published pre-merger by Namco)
- Ace Combat X: Skies of Deception
- Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation
- Ace Combat: Joint Assault
- Ace Combat: Assault Horizon
- Ace Combat Infinity
- Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown
- Code Vein
- Go Vacation
- God Eater 3
- THE iDOLM@STER: Million Live!
- Lost Reavers
- Scarlet Nexus
- Soulcalibur series (2007-present)
- Summer Lesson
- Tales Series (2012-present)
- Tekken series (2015-present)
Published by others
- Mario Sports Superstars (with Camelot Software Planning; published by Nintendo)
- Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U (with Sora Ltd.; published by Nintendo)
- Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (with Sora Ltd.; published by Nintendo)
- Pokkén Tournament (published by The Pokémon Company and Nintendo)
- New Pokémon Snap (published by The Pokémon Company and Nintendo)
These games were developed solely or primarily by B.B. Studio.
Published by BNEI
- Digimon World -next 0rder-
- Full Metal Panic! Fight Who Dares Wins
- Namco Museum (Namcot Collection only)
- Shin Gihren's Greed
- Super Robot Wars series (2011-present)
- The Second Super Robot Wars Z: Hakai-hen
- The Second Super Robot Wars Z: Saisei-hen
- Super Robot Wars OG Infinite Battle
- The Third Super Robot Wars Z: Jigoku-hen
- The Third Super Robot Wars Z: Rengoku-hen
- The Third Super Robot Wars Z: Tengoku-hen
- Super Robot Wars Original Generation: The Moon Dwellers
- Super Robot Wars V
- Super Robot Wars X
- Super Robot Wars T
- Super Robot Wars 30
These games' developers are either credited to BNEI as a whole, or credited to another BNEI studio beside the aforementioned studios.
Published by BNEI
- Afro Samurai
- Code Geass: Lost Colors
- Cross Ange Rondo of Angel and Dragon Tr. (co-developed with Graphinica and Q Tec)
- Dark Escape 4D
- Deadstorm Pirates
- Digimon ReArise
- Dragon Ball Z: Dokkan Battle
- Gundam Evolution (developed by Bandai Namco Online)
- The iDOLM@STER 2
- THE iDOLM@STER: Shiny Colors (developed by Bandai Namco Nexus)
- Katamari Damacy series (2006-present; series includes games only published by BNEI)
- Lost Land Adventure
- Mario Kart Arcade GP series (2007-present)
- Mizuiro Blood
- Muscle March
- Namco Museum (Namco Museum Virtual Arcade only; series includes games only published by BNEI)
- NOBY NOBY BOY
- One Piece: Treasure Cruise
- Pac-Man series (2006-present; series includes games only published by BNEI)
- Razing Storm
- Ridge Racer series (2006-present; series includes games only published by BNEI)
- Saint Seiya: Cosmo Fantasy
- Splatterhouse (2010 game only)
- Super Heroine Chronicle (developed by internal studio, branded as Banpresto)
- Taiko no Tatsujin series (2006-present)
- Tales Series (2006-2011; developed by Namco Tales Studionote )
- Tales of the Abyss (publisher for the North American and Nintendo 3DS versions, original Japanese PS2 version was published pre-merger by Namco)
- Tales of Phantasia (publisher for the PlayStation Portable version (developed by Mineloader), all other versions were published/licensed pre-merger by Namco)
- Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World
- Tales of Vesperia
- Tales of Hearts
- Tales of Graces
- Tales of Xillia
- Tales of Crestoria
- Tekken 6
- Time Crisis series (5 only; series includes games only published by BNEI)
- Wangan Midnight series (2007-present)
Published by others
- Mario Super Sluggers (published by Nintendo)
Published only
These games were published by BNEI, but were not developed by one of its subsidiary studios. The games' actual developers are indicated in brackets suffixed after the game titles.
- .hack//G.U. (CyberConnect2)
- Ace Combat: Assault Horizon Legacy (Access Games)
- Ar tonelico Qoga: Knell of Ar Ciel (Gust Corporation)
- Armored Core V (FromSoftware)
- Captain Tsubasa: Rise of New Champions (Tamsoft)
- CV: Casting Voice (Crafts & Meisters)
- Chroma Squad (Behold Studios)
- City Shrouded in Shadow (Granzella)
- The Dark Pictures Anthology (Supermassive Games)
- Dark Souls series (FromSoftware)
- Digimon game series
- Digimon World Championship (Epics)
- Digimon Adventure (PSP) (Prope)
- Digimon Universe Appli Monsters (Nintendo 3DS game; developed by Inti Creates)
- Digimon World Re:Digitize (tri-Crescendo)
- Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth (Media.Vision)
- Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth - Hacker's Memory (Media.Vision)
- Digimon Survive (Hyde)
- Disney Magical World (published in Japan only; developed by h.a.n.d.)
- Divinity: Original Sin II (consoles only; developed by Larian Studios)
- Doraemon: Story of Seasons (Brownies & Marvelous)
- Dragon Ball Origins (Game Republic)
- Dragon Ball: Raging Blast and Raging Blast 2 (Spike)
- Dragon Ball Heroes (Dimps)
- Dragon Ball Xenoverse (Dimps)
- Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 (Dimps)
- Dragon Ball: Fusions (Ganbarion)
- Dragon Ball FighterZ (Arc System Works)
- Dragon Ball Legends (Dimps)
- Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot (CyberConnect2)
- Dragon Ball: The Breakers (Dimps)
- Dynasty Warriors: Gundam (Koei Tecmo)
- Gundam Breaker (game series; developed by Crafts & Meister)
- New Gundam Breaker (Crafts & Meister)
- Gundam Breaker Mobile (Capcom)
- My Hero One's Justice (Byking)
- Elden Ring (FromSoftware)
- Enslaved: Odyssey to the West (Ninja Theory)
- Eternal Sonata (tri-Crescendo)
- Fast & Furious Crossroads (Slightly Mad Studios)
- Fragile Dreams: Farewell Ruins of the Moon (tri-Crescendo)
- Get Even (2017) (The Farm 51)
- God Eater (Shift)
- God Eater 2 (Shift)
- Godzilla (Natsume Atari)
- Heroes Phantasia (Witchcraft)
- Idolish 7 (formerly developed by geechs inc., now developed by G2 Studios; published by BNEI subsidiary Bandai Namco Online Inc.)
- The iDOLM@STER series (game franchise formerly published by Namco)
- THE iDOLM@STER: Dearly Stars (Microvision)
- THE iDOLM@STER: SideM (Alt Plus Inc.)
- THE iDOLM@STER: Cinderella Girls (Cygames)
- Inversion (Saber Interactive)
- JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: All Star Battle (CyberConnect2)
- J-Stars Victory VS (Spike Chunsoft)
- Jump Force (Spike Chunsoft)
- Kamen Rider Climax Heroes (Eighting)
- All Kamen Rider Generations (7thChord)
- Kamen Rider Battride War (Eighting)
- KAMEN RIDER: memory of heroez (Natsume-Atari)
- Knight's Contract (Game Republic)
- LEGO Brawls (Red Games)
- Little Tail Bronx series (game series formerly published by Bandai; developed by CyberConnect2)
- Solatorobo: Red the Hunter (Japan)note
- Little Nightmares (Tarsier Studios)
- Little Witch Academia: Chamber of Time (Aplus Games)
- Macross 30: The Voice that Connects the Galaxy (Artdink)
- Macross Frontier Trilogy (Artdink)
- Magna Carta 2 (Softmax)
- Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja 4 (CyberConnect2)
- Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja 5 (CyberConnect2)
- Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm (CyberConnect2)
- Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 2 (CyberConnect2)
- Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm Generations (CyberConnect2)
- Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 3 (CyberConnect2)
- Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm Revolution (CyberConnect2)
- Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4 (CyberConnect2)
- Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch (Level5)
- One Piece: Pirate Warriors (Koei Tecmo)
- One Piece: Unlimited Cruise (Ganbarion)
- One Piece: Unlimited World Red (Ganbarion)
- One Piece: World Seeker (Ganbarion)
- One Punch Man: A Hero Nobody Knows (Spike Chunsoft)
- Pac-Man Party (TOSE)
- Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures (Monkey Bar Games)
- Pac-Man World Re-Pac (Now Production)
- Project CARS (Slightly Mad Studios)
- Project × Zone (Monolith Soft)
- RAD (Double Fine Productions)
- Retro Game Challenge (indieszero)
- Sailor Zombie (Nex Entertainment)
- Snoopy vs. the Red Baron (Smart Bomb Interactive)
- Star Trek: The Video Game (Digital Extremes)
- Summon Night series (2009-present; various developers)
- Summon Night X (Flight-Plan & Think & Feel)
- Super Robot Wars series (series includes games developed & published by BNEI)
- Super Robot Wars Z (Banpresoftnote )
- Super Robot Wars OG Saga: Endless Frontier (Monolith Soft)
- Super Robot Wars K (A,I)
- Supa Robo Gakuen (A,I)
- Super Robot Wars NEO (sazanami)
- Super Robot Wars OG Saga: Endless Frontier EXCEED (Monolith Soft)
- Super Robot Wars OG Saga: Masou Kishin - The Lord of Elemental (Winkysoft)
- Super Robot Wars L (A,I)
- Super Robot Wars OG Saga: Masou Kishin II - Revelation of Evil God (Winkysoft)
- The Second Super Robot Wars Original Generation (Tose)
- Super Robot Wars UX (A,I)
- Super Robot Wars OE (sazanami)
- Super Robot Wars OG Saga: Masou Kishin III - Pride of Justice (Winkysoft)
- Super Robot Wars OG Saga: Masou Kishin F - Coffin of the End (Winkysoft)
- Super Robot Wars BX (A,I)
- Super Robot Wars X-Ω (Sega)
- Sword Art Online game series (various developers)
- Tales of Luminaria (Colopl)
- Time and Eternity (Imageepoch)
- Twin Mirror (Dontnod Entertainment)