Namco Almost 50, Ups Profit, Shows Taiko

Thanks to GameSpot for its short piece noting Namco is preparing to celebrate its 50th anniversary as a company, after it "started out small, building two wooden-horse rides on the rooftop of a department store in Yokohama", before it "released the arcade title Pac-Man [in 1980], which established a dominant position for the company in the gaming industry." IGN PS2 also has Namco's 2003 financial results, which were "higher than those of previous years", with a 8,500,000,000 yen (USD$75 million) profit, after "Soul Calibur 2 performed well worldwide, with the Taiko no Tatsujin drumming game crossing the two million mark across its four PS2 titles." The company's official E3 site has been showcasing its recently announced titles, including the newly unveiled Tekken 5, as well as the quietly shown U.S.-localized Taiko Drum Master, which 1UP notes "may be a hard sell to American gamers whose definition of 'rhythm action' begins and ends with the frenetic aerobics of Dance Dance Revolution", even notwithstanding increased American interest [free reg. req.] in taiko drumming.

Comments

Tekken tour still the best

[superpulpsicle]

I don't care if Tekken 5 is coming out. Tekken 4 blows, and 5 is on the same track if the article's right.

Let's bring back every damn character ever in a Tekken game. We should keep on accumulating, not lose a couple characters on every sequel.

Re:Tekken tour still the best

[sammaffei]

Agreed.

Tekken Tag Tournament was by far the best Tekken yet. The game play is great and the graphics aren't too bad either.

My Tekken 4 went on eBay a few days after purchase.

Built in a Yokohama?

[Anonymous Coward]

"started out small, building two wooden-horse rides on the rooftop of a department store in Yokohama"

That must be one big ass tire to have its own department store with rides.

Go Namco

[Anonymous Coward]

Hail to the inovators who brought us not only Pacman, but the inventive sequel Ms. Pacman. Who would have thought adding a bow would warant a whole new game?

Re:Go Namco

[Anonymous Coward]

Ms. Pac Man was created by General Computer Corporation, which sold it to Midway, Pac Man's publisher in USA.

Re:Go Namco

[Anonymous Coward]

But General Computer Corporation is the division of Namco that made the first Pacman. What is your point?

Re:Go Namco

[BTWR]

Ms. Pac-Man was more than "Pac-Man with a bow." It was a true sequel in the same way that the Madden games are sequels: They have fundamentally the same gameplay, graphics and objective, but with better "A.I.," gameplay and/or graphics.

Ms. Pac-Man has 3 different puzzle levels, it was one of the first games that had "cutscenes," and the "A.I." (if you can call it that) was vastly improved. In Pac-Man, the ghosts moved in a pre-formed pattern, so it was possible for masters to learn this pattern and play for hours. Ms. Pac-Man had better ghost mechanics.

Mock it all you want, but I never play Pac-Man on my M.A.M.E. machine, but I always play Ms.

Katamari Damancii

[Blackwulf]

Namco also quietly showed Katamari Damancii (spelled Damancy on the show floor), a game previously featured on Slashdot Games where you roll around the ball and gobble up things. I played that game for most of Day 3.

They really, really need to bring that game to America before I just import it and put it next to the 4 Taiko no-Tatsujin games I already own. :>

C'mon!

[Reorax]

Now if they would hurry the hell up and get Xenosaga Episode 2 out here, they might keep turning out profits like this.

Re:C'mon!

[Alkaiser]

They were showing a movie of Xenosaga: Ep 2, right next to the booth that was displaying Tekken 5.

Drumming?!?

[Psychochild]

I was at E3 and quite enjoyed Taiko game Namco was showing. I've never been a big fan of DDR, but I enjoyed Sega's Samba De Amigo (yay Dreamcast!). The music for Taiko is mostly classical from what I could tell, a genre of music I enjoy. The 1 UP article says it has J-Pop in there, though.

I think the demo was fun (Namco is the only booth I went back to multiple times to play the games), and am debating if I want to buy it when it (hopefully) comes out. I'm a big fan of innovative games like that. Wish I had more time between meeting with press people about my own game to see more of the cool games on the floor.

My thoughts,

Good for Namco

[doilum]

I like seeing innovation rewarded. Now, all we need is for EA's profits to go down...