Namco Bandai to set up Euro studio?

Speaking exclusively to MCV, European president of NBGE Masayuki Matsuo confirmed that the fledgling publisher is keen to get the ball rolling on its own development base in the territory, and is aware of key differences between Eastern and European gamers.

“Although we don’t have any immediate plans to set up development facilities in Europe, we would like to look in this direction in the long and medium term,” Matsuo told MCV. “Keeping in mind the unique aspects of the European market, we would like to study carefully any possibility to develop different genres of games for the Euro market.”

Matsuo added that the publisher was already in the process of creating “interesting” titles for Nintendo’s Wii and that it was looking to set up more co-publishing and distribution deals in Europe in the near future.

The news comes after Matsuo promised the industry that NBGE was ready to challenge “leading publishers for market share” in Europe – despite currently only holding co-publishing agreements in the territory with firms including EA, Atari and Deep Silver.