Bandai Namco unveils ‘Change for the Next’ company vision

In response to falling profits, Japanese publisher Bandai Namco has revealed to investors a new three-year mid-term vision for the company. Called ‘Change for the Next’, it involves the publisher focusing more on IP creation and collaboration with other studios.

Specifically, Bandai Namco is looking to boost its capability to create new IP by undergoing several structural changes. “In order to strengthen our capacity for creating IP, we will establish a new IP Creation Unit with the primary mission of creating new IP,” the investor relations report states. “The unit will do more than just create new animation products; it will constantly collaborate closely with Group businesses to produce IP linked to products and services, aiming to create IP through internal collaboration within the Group. In creating new IP, we will invest aggressively in enhancing our visual production and production technologies, as well as strengthening collaboration with external partners who have various advanced capabilities.”

These external partners could include Nintendo, which Bandai Namco is heavily rumoured to be working with on the next Metroid Prime title. Both its Singapore and Japan studios are implied to be involved.

As part of its new policy, Bandai Namco will be investing 25bn yen across the business, with plans to “invest aggressively in creating new IP, engagement with external partners, and taking on new businesses and new technologies, among others”. For more details on the publisher’s new policies, be sure to read the translated investor report in full.