Namco and Nintendo in bed

[Bomberman UK]

I mean seriously.... they seem so close lately... Donky kong, Star Fox, Pac-Man, Link in Zelda, Baton Kaitos, Mr Driller Drill Land, Tales of Phantasia and all those other multformat games (R: Racing, I-Ninja etc).

If I remembver correctly, Namco wanted to merge with Sega, but that fell through. Could it be that they'll merge with Nintendo for the next Gen?

What do you guys think of this? Could Namco be the next Rare?

[Razz]

Don't think so, because Namco still makes alot of money from Sony's machine.

They wouldn't throw that away, surely?

[Mr Ono]

Namco have always been a class act IMHO and with their output of outstanding RPGs lately and in the pipeline I can see them being the next Squaresoft rather then the next Rare.

[Bomberman UK]

Don't think so, because Namco still makes alot of money from Sony's machine.

They wouldn't throw that away, surely?

I don't know, what exclusives have they got coming out for PS2? The next Xeno game maybe, but what else?

It just seems weird, especially as Namco didn't make **** for the N64, or even the SNES.

[C']

Namco have always been a class act IMHO and with their output of outstanding RPGs lately and in the pipeline I can see them being the next Squaresoft rather then the next Rare.

I find that rather worrying actually. I've never been overly fond of Namco's RPGs instead prefering a lot of there Action/Arcade output. I hope Namco don't lose that aspect. They may have aped Sega a lot of the time, but when they did it with such flair, I wasn't complaining.

[snowman]

With the rpg's namco saw the gap in the gc market and capatilsed... I'm not sure about the next "RARE" but tbh there both totally diffrent... They seem close but nintendo relly need more 3rd party's than 2nd partys at the moment i feel...

[Max M]

Could Namco be the next Rare?

Well they've been given the franchises (Star Fox and Donkey Kong) Rare have had their hands-on. I don't know if Namco still want to merge with another company though.

[SharkAttack]

I seriously think Nintendo have rubbed a lot of people up the right way thi generation and are more likely to have the famous "Namco" support at the next gen launch than Sony.

In fact, I can see Nintendo getting good backing from Capcom, Sega and Namco from the start next time round.

[Max M]

True, although I remember some guy from Criterion basically saying Western publishers feel Nintendo's snubbed them in favour of Japanese companies. Maybe that's true, but I can't say I care too much. At least it makes their machine different to the other 2. It seems that apart from 3 or 4 games all the biggest sellers on Xbox and PS2 are Western.

[Molloy]

Well Nintendo certainly gave Retro their full support. Metroid Prime has been one of the best selling games this generation too.

Western developers (at least American) are really starting to get their act together at the moment. There's alot of scope for expansion there if the Japanese choose to look for it.

[Max M]

Well Nintendo certainly gave Retro their full support. Metroid Prime has been one of the best selling games this generation too.

True, I was thinking more third party stuff though. Rogue Leader is the only big Western GC exclusive I can think of!

[Pootle UK]

It just seems weird, especially as Namco didn't make **** for the N64, or even the SNES.

Ermmm... correct me if I'm wrong but didn't Namco release Ridge Racer 64 on the N64?

[Max M]

It just seems weird, especially as Namco didn't make **** for the N64, or even the SNES.

Ermmm... correct me if I'm wrong but didn't Namco release Ridge Racer 64 on the N64?

NST (Nintendo's US team) developed that. Actually that was the start of Nintendo and Namco making up and becoming close again, maybe that's what Nintendo's hoping to do with MGS: Twin Snakes. Unlike Nintendo, Sega and Capcom, Konami's been fairly cold towards GameCube.