Namco moving development to Japan in light of 'lacking' overseas developer performance

Will we never see a Tales game ever again.

Well now I will never buy one of their games again.

Uh... did Namco just say America sucks?

a want Enslaved 2! :(

Clash of the Titans was done by Game Republic, actually. Which is why it had some pretty nice art design despite being a steaming pile like every other movie tie-in this side of Scott Pilgrim vs. the World.

Hopefully this posts the end of the fad of Japanese developers desperately trying to appeal to the West. Their sales were better and their games were better when they were doing their own thing. They've been acting like there's no middle ground between Gears of War and Doki Doki Majou Shinpan (remember that DS game?)

Hopefully more emphasis on titles developed in Japan means they'll LOCALIZE SOME DAMN TALES GAMES!

Go Japan!!! :D
Sticking it to the man!

i saw this and was hoping they would take the investment money they had planned to put into developing western games and put it into localizing their stuff. i think that namco is in a very good position right now, they have 3 titles that fans are craving.

there is a void imo in the japanese-centric games brought to the west, with all these japanese developers trying to westernize themselves. i think if namco was to capatalize on this and release their stuff here. it would do alot better than enslaved and the like

I think, I like Namco only for their "arcade" business. That is to say, their games developed with the video game arcade in mind, be it their classic stuff (I can't tell you how much play I've gotten out of the 5-volume NamcoMuseum on PS1), or newer arcades (Mr. Driller, SoulCalibur, Wangan Midnight, Time Crisis), or arcade-like home releases (Pac-Man CE, Pac-Man Vs.).

When they make more "console" styled game... they kinda lose me sometimes. Yes, I know they have the long-standing Tales series, which I know has many fans (though, I'm not big on RPGs, so they don't interest me), but it's sad how they don't seem to realize the sizeable fanbase for the series outside of Japan.

Just like Capcom, they've been relying on Western developers too much, without reaching desirable results, be it lackluster games or lackluster sales (or both). Do you blame the developer, or the publisher? While, sure, the developer made the game, the publisher pays for it and sets the deadlines. Some games are a bad idea to start with, while others are a great idea, but fell short for one reason or another (usually due to running out of development time).

While these East-Meets-West partnerships have resulted in a few decent titles (Enslaved and Dead Rising 2, for example), it seems like most of them have resulted in less-than-stellar games.

So, what's the problem? Western-made games from Western publishers (EA, Microsoft, Activision) seem to do great; it isn't like there's no game development talent in NA and EU. Maybe the Japanese publishers are striking deals with less talented or less experienced developers, or perhaps there's a clash of management styles that put the projects into Hell. Recall how the development of Splatterhouse shifted mid-development from BottleRocket to inside Namco Bandai? Maybe it was that BottleRocket wasn't doing a good job, or maybe it wasn't (but, the final game turned out not so hot, anyways... so do you blame Namco for that?).

Why is it I always hear about this crap from a gaming site before we hear about it internally :(.

Good. Japanese developers are better anyway. Western developers care far less about originality/uniqueness and more about the bottom line.

I hope the industry goes back to a more Japanese-centric theme going forward.

Japanese centered publishers should focus on encouraging innovative Japanese games rather than trying to put on a facade of being able to develop wide appeal games. There's a reason why Japanese games are niche in the West and Western games are niche in Japan.

Make Enslaved 2. Ninja Theory made a masterpiece and it deserves to be a franchise. Ninja Theory is a great developer. Butthurt DMC fanboys disagree, though.

Also, Clash of the Titans was developed by a Japanese developer, Game Republic, which also released Majin & The Forsaken Kingdom under Namco/Bandai.

PS: Dead To Rights: Retribution, while not great, was a ton of fun and rather solid.

Tales of Vesperia on PS3, NA release. make it happen

I just want Tales games Namco Bandai.

I wish Namco would bring their Gundam games to the US. The Gundam Vs. series is quite good in its own right. Other games like Gundam Senki and Mobile Ops are decent enough for a budget release too.

Heck, polish up Mobile Ops and it could be a great success with the FPS crowd.

That picture... POMPADOUR TOADS

The reason I don't buy your games Namco is because you still haven't given me vesperia on the ps3

what about if namco bandai bring Gundam extreme Vs. i mean those kind of arcade games should come to america....

Hey dont be hating on teh splatterhouse. Also bring a freaking tales game over you greedy bums.

Am I the only one who saw that article image and immediately thought, "BUD-WEIS-ER"?

This is probably for the best, I mean I know its great that companies try to take on something new, but in the case of Bamco this decision is for the best. After considering the games that came out like splatterhouse which looks not so interesting and majin looks kinda corny, but enslaved was the coolest one I've honestly seen. But anyways, yes they should focus more on ":japanese" style games like the tales series and actually getting it here! I don't understand the incompetence these people have by rather having new IPs which don't look promising over their most popular franchise (Tales of) besides anime based games like DBZ and Naruto. and I find it funny how they say they don't have money or dont want to spend money on bringing them over seas via new publishers because they would lose money.....Really now, I think they have lost much more money on investing on these western based games as I have mentioned then releasing their tale games. Well that's my logic on this business.

That's because all America wants is Macho men and Guns. No originality.