Bandai Namco wants to invest in creating new IPs.
Bandai Namco continues to want to invest more and more in the game market and is now wanting its titles to be published more outside of Japan as well, as well as wanting to create new IPs.
The publisher is working together with a new IP creation unit and efforts can already be seen in titles like Code Vein, for example.
In an interview, Hervé Hoerdt, vice president of Marketing, spoke about the new franchises. “We want 50% of our business to come from new IPs. We want to build a sustainable business, because most of our IPs are franchises and licenses. And to be a sustainable business, you need to have your own IP. And another thing is that the IP that we have always reaches the same marketing segment, such as fighting and anime, but there is much more to be done in the market “.
He also said that “we are an entertainment company, not just video games and we are trying to exploit this to the fullest. And exploring this is not something we can do with a licensed franchise like Naruto, for example. We want to create an IP that we can exploit a lot , as we are doing with Little Nightmares “.
Regarding the titles that will be produced and marketed outside of Japan, Hoerdt said that it will not be in the next three to five years, but believes that it should definitely happen in the next decade. The publisher intends to “build new franchises that can expand beyond games”.
Hoerdt also commented on developer Dotnot, and said that “they are really a rising star. We can see that with what they did in the beginning with Remember Me and Vampyr. We want to grow slowly, we are not a company that just puts money on the table to buy IP and ready, we are a Japanese company, we want to go slow but safe. The fact that we have a strategic adjustment with Dotnot – we are growing, and they are also growing and proving that there is something very strong “.
We also have some information about “All Bandai Namco”, which is a specific project for the region used for the company’s strengths. “The strength of the company is that we are the largest toy manufacturer in the world. In the UK, we have Namco Funscape and many entertainment venues.”
“The idea of All Bandai Namco is to leverage all the synergy we can. The consumer gets involved with an IP, if we can expand this experience, it would be better. So the idea is to leverage all of this, to break the silo. We have a very clear vision of our limit as a company and we’re working on that limit. It’s not about money or business, it’s about creating brands that people love and having more consumers around the world interacting with them and experiencing them fully, ”Hoerdt adds.
