Namco Limited was a Japanese international company that created video games and entertainment products. It was started in 1955 and operated video arcades and amusement parks around the world. The company made video games, movies, toys, and arcade machines. Namco played a major role in the coin-operated and arcade game industry, creating popular game series like Pac-Man, Galaxian, Tekken, Soulcalibur, Tales, Ridge Racer, and Ace Combat.
The name "Namco" comes from Nakamura Manufacturing Company, which was named after the company’s founder, Masaya Nakamura. In the 1960s, Nakamura Manufacturing made electro-mechanical arcade games, such as the 1965 game Periscope. The company entered the video game industry in 1974 by buying the struggling Japanese part of Atari and distributing games like Breakout in Japan. In 1977, the company changed its name to Namco and released Gee Bee, its first original video game, the next year. One of Namco’s first major successes was the 1979 game Galaxian, followed by Pac-Man in 1980. During the early 1980s, when arcade games were very popular, Namco released well-known games like Galaga, Xevious, and Pole Position.
In 1984, Namco began making versions of its arcade games for home consoles, such as the MSX and the Nintendo Family Computer. Later, the company expanded to other platforms, including the Sega Genesis, TurboGrafx-16, and PlayStation. In the 1990s, Namco created successful games like Ridge Racer, Tekken, and Taiko no Tatsujin. However, the company faced financial challenges due to Japan’s weak economy and the decline of the arcade industry.
In 2006, Namco merged with Bandai to create Bandai Namco Holdings. The Namco brand is still used by Bandai Namco Amusements for arcade games and other entertainment products. Namco’s video game division was combined with Bandai Namco Entertainment. Namco is remembered for its unique business structure, its influence on the gaming industry, and its technological innovations.
History
On June 1, 1955, Japanese businessman Masaya Nakamura founded Nakamura Seisakusho Co., Ltd. in Ikegami, Tokyo. The son of a shotgun repair business owner, Nakamura had trouble finding work in ship building during the difficult times after World War II. Nakamura started his own company after his father’s business became successful by making pop cork guns. He used ¥300,000 (US$12,000) to buy two hand-cranked rocking horses, which he placed on the roof garden of a Matsuya department store in Yokohama.
The horses were popular with children and made good money for Nakamura. He expanded his business to other small locations. In 1959, the company was renamed Nakamura Seisakusho Company, Ltd. In 1963, Mitsukoshi department store noticed his success and asked him to build a rooftop amusement space for its store in Nihonbashi, Tokyo. The space included horse rides, a picture viewing machine, a goldfish scooping pond, and a moving train called Roadaway Race. It became very popular, and Mitsukoshi asked Nakamura to create similar spaces for all its stores.
Nakamura Seisakusho became one of Japan’s leading amusement companies alongside Taito, Rosen Enterprises, and Nihon Goraku Bussan. As the business grew, it bought amusement machines from other manufacturers at lower prices and sold them to smaller stores at full price. However, the company did not have the same manufacturing or distribution systems as its competitors, which made producing machines slower and more expensive.
Because other companies had exclusive rights to place machines in stores, Nakamura Seisakusho opened a production plant in February 1966 and moved its office to a four-story building in Ōta, Tokyo. The company made a deal with Walt Disney Productions to create rides based on Disney characters and popular anime figures like Q-Taro. This helped the business grow and become a major player in Japan’s coin-op market.
Though the factory mainly produced Disney and anime-themed rides, Nakamura also used it to build larger, more complex electro-mechanical games. The first was Torpedo Launcher (1965), later called Periscope. Other products included games based on Ultraman and Osomatsu-kun.
In 1971, the company introduced the name Namco as a brand for its machines. It had ten employees, including Nakamura. Its arcade games became common in bowling alleys and grocery stores. The company also created a robotics division to make robots for entertainment events, such as those that handed out pamphlets, made ribbons, and solved mazes.
In August 1973, American company Atari started operations in Asia, including Atari Japan. In 1974, Atari’s president, Kenichi Takumi, asked Nakamura to distribute Atari games in Japan. Nakamura agreed, as he planned to expand globally. However, Atari Japan faced financial problems, partly due to employee theft, and nearly collapsed.
When Takumi stopped working, Hideyuki Nakajima, a former employee of Japan Art Paper Company, took over. Atari co-founder Nolan Bushnell decided to sell the Japanese division. His representative, Ron Gordon, tried to sell it to Sega and Taito but failed. Nakamura agreed to buy it for ¥296 million ($1.18M), though he could not pay by the deadline. Eventually, Nakamura paid $550,000 upfront and $250,000 a year for three years. This deal allowed Nakamura Seisakusho to distribute Atari games in Japan, making it one of the country’s largest arcade game companies.
The Atari Japan purchase was not immediately successful because of the popularity of medal games in the 1970s. Nakamura Seisakusho had some success with imported games like Kee Games’ Tank, but the Japanese video game industry’s decline made them less profitable. After the government banned medal games in 1976, the market improved. Nakamura Seisakusho’s import of Atari’s Breakout was very successful, leading to widespread piracy. By the end of 1976, the company became one of Japan’s leading video game companies.
In June 1977, Nakamura Seisakusho changed its name to Namco. It opened a division in Hong Kong called Namco Enterprises Asia, which managed video arcades and amusement centers. As Namco grew in Japan, Nakajima suggested opening a U.S. division to increase global recognition. Nakamura agreed, and on September 1, 1978, Namco-America was established in Sunnyvale, California. Nakajima was its president, and Satashi Bhutani was vice president. Namco-America aimed to import games and license them to companies like Atari and Bally Manufacturing. It also released some non-video arcade games, such as Shoot Away (1977).
As Japan’s video game industry grew in the 1970s with Taito’s Space Invaders, Namco focused on creating its own games. Though licensed Atari games were still profitable, sales dropped, and hardware quality declined. Following engineer Shigekazu Ishimura’s advice, Namco converted its Ōta manufacturing facility into a game division and used old NEC computers for employee training.
Namco released Gee Bee, its first original game, in October 1978. Designed by new hire Toru Iwatani, it was a video pinball game inspired by Breakout and similar games. Though Gee Bee did not meet sales goals and could not compete with Space Invaders, it helped Namco gain a stronger position in the video game market.
In 1979, Namco released Galaxian, one of the first video games to use RGB color graphics, score bonuses, and a tilemap hardware model. Galaxian was historically important for these innovations and for building on mechanics from Space Invaders. It was released in North America by Midway Manufacturing, where it became one of its best-selling games and created a partnership between Midway and Namco.
By the end of the 1970s, space shooter games like Galaxian and Space Invaders were common in Japanese amusement centers. Video games often involved killing enemies and shooting targets, and the industry had mostly male players. Toru Iwatani began working on a maze video game aimed at women, with simple gameplay and recognizable characters. He and a small team created Puck Man, where players controlled a character that had to eat dots in a maze while avoiding four ghosts.
Legacy
Namco was one of the largest companies that made arcade games worldwide. Since 1978, it created more than 300 games, many of which are considered some of the best in history, such as Pac-Man, Galaga, Xevious, Ridge Racer, Tekken 3, and Katamari Damacy.
Pac-Man is one of the most important video games ever made. It helped inspire creativity and originality in the video game industry. In 2005, Guinness World Records recognized Namco for the game’s global success. By that time, Pac-Man had sold over 300,000 arcade machines and earned more than $1 billion in coin revenue worldwide. In 2017, a writer for Nintendo Life, Damien McFerran, wrote in an article about Masaya Nakamura: “Without Namco and Pac-Man, the video game world would look very different today.”
Namco’s ideas and quality work were praised by many publications. In a 1994 review, a writer for Edge described Namco as one of the true pioneers in the arcade game industry. The writer said Namco’s success came from its forward-thinking ideas and focus on making high-quality games. In 1998, a writer for Next Generation, a sister publication to Edge, noted that Namco had created consistently excellent games for most of its history. The writer credited the company’s connection with players and its influential games, including Pac-Man, Xevious, and Winning Run, for its success in a changing industry.
Many publications and journalists have highlighted Namco’s role in shaping the video game industry. Hirokazu Hamamura, the chief editor of Famitsu, said Namco’s quality games helped increase the popularity of video game consoles, which in turn helped grow Japan’s video game industry. Writers for Ultimate Future Games and Official UK PlayStation Magazine said Namco’s games contributed to the early success of the PlayStation, one of the most famous entertainment brands in the world. Official UK PlayStation Magazine also called Namco “the godfather of game developers” and one of the most important video game companies in history.
In 1997, staff from IGN said Namco’s games, such as Pac-Man and Galaga, represent the video game industry as a whole. They wrote: “Studying Namco’s history is like studying the history of the entire industry. From its early days on the roof of a store in Yokohama, to the upcoming release of Tekken 3 for the PlayStation, Namco has always led the way.” In 2012, IGN listed Namco among the greatest video game companies ever, noting that games like Galaga, Pac-Man, Dig Dug, and Ridge Racer were of high quality and helped shape the industry.