490°

Namco Bandai Named Most “Powerful” Japanese Game Company, Sony Drops Sharply, Nintendo Collapses

Every year Japan’s prominent business and economy magazine Toyo Keizai publishes the New – Corporate Power Ranking where it grades Japanese companies on four parameters: growth, profitability, safety and scale.

Namco Bandai was the first ranked between video game companies. Sony dropped sharply, while Nintendo literally collapsed by more than 1400 positions in the overall ranking.

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MultiConsoleGamer3742d ago

Very happy for Namco Bandai. I love me some Pac-Man!

Magicite3742d ago

More RPGs please! Tales games FTW!

djplonker3742d ago

I agree who needs a decent ff game when there is tales games!

Spenok3742d ago

Absolutely. Just picked up Tales of Xillia on the PSN for $10. Already excited for Xillia 2 :D

Magicite3742d ago

Tales are great on its own, but they cant replace Final Fantasy ever.

RandomGamer3742d ago

I agree and unlike like Square Enix with Final Fantasy Namco Bandai doesn't always try to change the formula so much they alienate large portions of the fan base .

GameNameFame3742d ago (Edited 3742d ago )

Well. I just check stock. Sony market cap is over 17 billion dollars.

Namco Bandai is 4 billion... So Sony is over 4 times bigger. Not sure if the author read 4 billion in yen or something lol. Kinda bad journalism. Namcos stock have been rising though.

Still,completely false article. Author needs better homework

Skip_Bayless3741d ago

PS4>PS3 , so this subjective ranking system is gonna change come next year :)

+ Show (3) more repliesLast reply 3741d ago
truefan13742d ago

Are they including the complete Sony company? I can understand if they are including the other struggling departments, but if its ps4 only why did it fall? ps4 has had a pretty successful launch with sales and reviews, so why the drop?

3742d ago
Snookies123742d ago

@R0ver0ff - If they're 'betting everything on the PS4', then they're going to be absolutely fine. That thing is taking off.

Gamer19823742d ago

Its the complete Sony company yeah. Not just gaming division even though the article is slightly misleading but they put Sony in there as they do make games. It doesn't say SEJ it says Sony. So that includes there TV and entertainment divisions which have taken massive hits over the past few years especially there TV department thanks to warehouse floods and 3D not taking off etc..

ShinMaster3742d ago

@ R0ver0ff

That's a good bit of stealth trolling right there.

+ Show (1) more replyLast reply 3742d ago
Chrono3742d ago

Namco is probably one of the few old Japanese video game companies that are still doing as good as before or even better.

Concertoine3742d ago

Most of it probably isnt even games too...
They own all those animes and stuff.

YellowTempes3741d ago

And they're doing a great job for all their products, that's for sure.

mewhy323742d ago

Nintendo is really in need of some redirection.

Volkama3742d ago (Edited 3742d ago )

With great power comes great.... earning potential?

Good for them keeping up with the industry where others are struggling to adapt.

RIIIIIIIDGE RAAAAACER

Silly gameAr3742d ago

Grrrr, Heeey! This isn't a TitanFall or X1 article! What are you doing here?!

Volkama3742d ago

Hi!

I stick to articles that interest me :) Titanfall and X1 are on that list (on separate lines, as I'm getting Titanfall for the PC), but there are many other things on it too!

Japanese companies of influence are only moderately interesting though, so perhaps I should leave.

MrWonderful3742d ago

with great power comes releasing more of the Tales series outside of the East.

mii-gamer3742d ago

Nintendo has a safety rating of 998 which is almost close to perfect. But Nintendo's growth is poor, which is expected since the 3DS has been selling steadily well while the wii u has been struggling. Nintendo only needs to work on the profitability this year (which will be hard) to get back to the where they were in 2012.

Good find Abriael

abzdine3742d ago (Edited 3742d ago )

no surprise about that, Namco have been delivering for the past years.
I don't know what's wrong with SCEJ

ZodTheRipper3742d ago

Read this
http://kotaku.com/how-sonys...

Short version: They were struggling with the PS3 and their old fashioned approach to game development but the future looks promising thanks to some internal restructuring done by the former head of Sony Santa Monica.

abzdine3742d ago (Edited 3742d ago )

i still think it's strange we haven't seen any announcement other than Knack. Let's wait and see what they are up to but i really hope they release something for the oldschool fans.

thanks 4 the link

ZodTheRipper3742d ago

Well it's strange because you're wrong. They released Soul Sacrifice, Rain, Puppeteer, and Knack in the last 12 months. They are currently working on Destiny of Spirits, Soul Sacrifice Delta, Gravity Rush 2, Deep Down and The Last Guardian.

majiebeast3742d ago (Edited 3742d ago )

They are also working on freedom wars together with the developer of Gods eater 2. The rumoured Demons souls 2/spiritual succesor and probably some other stuff we havent heard of. Allan Becker is telling Fumito Ueda to get of his ass and finish Last Guardian.

Show all comments (55)
80°

Nintendo's Massacre Of The 3DS And Wii U Is Finally Complete, Regrettably

Hanzala from eXputer: "The cruel hammer of Nintendo has fallen. Farewell, 3DS and Wii U, you surely brightened my life and many others; you won't be forgotten."

280°

Xbox's Preservation Step Sets A Much-Needed Example, Especially For Nintendo

Hanzla from eXputer inquires: "If Xbox can care about preserving its games and legacy, what exactly is wrong with Nintendo, trying to kill game preservation single-handedly?"

purple1016d ago

Ahh yes the good old game preservation of saving all your games to a removable hhd on the Xbox 360, taking it round your mates house, setting up multiple tvs to
Be met with “save data corrupted, please re download”

Or how about removing 360 games
From the store
, download them now or else, and, better hope to god that save data doesn’t corrupt, or it’s lost for ever

Nice one ☝️

Zeref5d ago

It's better than what Nintendo and Playstation is doing. It might not be perfect but at least they are TRYING. Unlike the others.

DarXyde5d ago

Trying? Take off the blinders for a moment, mate.

1. A failure to preserve games is just that: a failure to preserve games. Don't try to sugarcoat it: NO ONE is doing it properly. Better than awful is nothing to write home about.

2. At the time of this comment, isn't it the case that you need an internet connection to play Xbox games even if you buy physical discs that are hardly in circulation anymore? I don't have a Series X and I can't verify, but I think that is correct. I'm fairly certain you can at least play PS5 games at version 1.0 (not much of a win really when many games require day one patches). I think Microsoft's all digital, licensing approach is by far more aggressive than anyone else's. They really try to push you to game pass where you lose your entire library by umm.... Skipping a month of payments.

I don't think anyone is doing it right whatsoever. Don't get me started on Nintendo, who goes after anyone looking to preserve their games better than they ever would with extreme litigation.

Don't be a simp for any of these companies. Get it together.

PhillyDonJawn5d ago (Edited 5d ago )

@DarX never speak on Xbox again. You lost all credibility with your internet connection comment. Smh you have 0 clue and misinformed yet speaking on something you don't no squat about.

Einhander19725d ago

What has Sony done exactly? You guys keep deflecting to Sony but I am not actually seeing any results, and ai am certain nothing that you can come up with even comes close to what Microsoft has done and what they have tried and failed to do, like tie all your disks to your account on xbone.

Microsoft removed their whole indie section when they moved to the xbone because they were going to only allow games on the service that came from a publisher, id@xbox started after xbone launched and it only exists because Sony embraced indie and Microsoft was forced to cancel their plans and reverse course.

And every single game that was part of games for windows live including disk games (I have gta 4 on disk that won't work) so hundreds of games that use that DRM no longer work unless the company themselves patched it out which of course very few did.

MrBaskerville5d ago

Not trying. Tried. they killed of the backcomp program years ago. They set something up again, but sounds like it's more of an attempt to save the current library on whatever they are planning next. With luck they save everything and more, but let's see. I could see them killing off parts of the OG xbox and 360 libraries. Can't imagine that they would allow us to play Forza 5-7 in the future.

With that said, I do like what they've done and really wish they could have done more.

shinoff21835d ago

Zeref

So killing off physical media is trying what exactly. Ms don't really give a fk if you think they do your kidding yourself.

Profchaos5d ago

They are not trying this team is established for forward compatability the team is. It interested in preserving Xbox or 360 games.

+ Show (3) more repliesLast reply 5d ago
isarai6d ago

Is that why Hellblade 2 is digital only?

Zeref5d ago

Just because it's digital only doesn't mean you can't preserve it. Just put it on an external and you have the exact same functionality of what a disc does.

MrNinosan5d ago

Guess you're trolling, but if you actually think that's how it works, I'd recommend buying some braincells.

mkis0074d ago (Edited 4d ago )

Volitile vs nonvolitile data. A disc will not corrupt either. A drive can be corrupted.

Einhander19726d ago

This is just a scammy PR move to distract from the fact they are going digital only and trying to push streaming and subscriptions only.

No gaming company has pushed harder to remove ownership than Microsoft.

Without discs there is no preservation, preservation can't be done by the rights holders it can only be done by the consumers, anything else is a lie.

5d ago Replies(3)
Einhander19725d ago

Anyone remember xblig which Microsoft removed their whole 360 indie section removing hundreds of games from people?

5d ago
5d ago
Zeref5d ago

Do you know you can put your games on an external and preserve them that way? There are no benefits to discs. ZERO. Idk why some of you are still obsessed with them.

DarXyde5d ago

Because games like Persona 5 exist. It's STILL V1.00. On Playstation, that's a win because 1.00 is installed on the disc—no need to download anything.

If a game does not require any updates, it's all on the disc.

Extremely low bar in the modern era, of course. It's not much of a win by any stretch.

But for now, physical media does have a purpose, at least on Playstation.

Einhander19725d ago

That is factually not how game licensing works, try plugging your hard drive into someone else xbox, It's not going to work, and it won't work if the licensing servers ever go down.

Einhander19725d ago

Anyone remember games for windows live.

I have around a dozen games, some on Steam itself that will not work because Microsoft shut off the licensing servers.

BehindTheRows5d ago (Edited 5d ago )

I do. I STILL have games (Gears of War being the big one) I cannot access because Games for Windows LIVE is total garbage and no one has held Microsoft accountable.

Zeref5d ago (Edited 5d ago )

You don't have an Xbox apparently. Because you can 100 percent plug in your external and play games from it on any Xbox console lol. You just have to be logged in to prove ownership.

Chevalier5d ago

"You don't have an Xbox apparently. Because you can 100 percent plug in your external and play games from it on any Xbox console lol. You just have to be logged in to prove ownership."

Damn how many times do people got to explain your idiocy to you? You can take a copy of Persona 5 like someone used as an example and play that game on ANY console WITHOUT logging in which means I can lend the game to a friend without internet and they can play my game. Can you lend your hard drive to anyone without logging in for them to play? NOPE. That is a huge difference and if you think otherwise then sorry you're an idiot.

Tacoboto5d ago

"No gaming company has pushed harder to remove ownership than Microsoft."

Ubisoft is literally erasing games people bought from their libraries... My PS1-3 discs are useless on modern hardware. Nintendo's re-published and resold almost their entire Wii U library, and the eShop is completely dead with no BC mechanism in the Switch software. Microsoft publishes everything they make today day one on Steam and Xbox/Windows. Sony only brings to PC the titles they think you might want some years later and Nintendo won't even design a functional long-lasting joystick.

You're absolutely trolling and not serious if you think Microsoft today is the worst offender.

shinoff21835d ago

Yay steam

Not everyone fks with computers though. The disc is still the best way as a console player. Period.

Tacoboto4d ago

How do Sony and Nintendo feel about these discs from 2001-2013?

Don't be stupid, you know Xbox is the best at this today.

+ Show (3) more repliesLast reply 4d ago
Hofstaderman5d ago

Nobody wants this. Sales or the lack of it in the case of XBOX is very telling. I wonder how the adorably all digital series X will fare. Adorably dismal perhaps?

crazyCoconuts5d ago

Only time will tell, but for from someone like me suspecting that Xbox is trying to gracefully exit the console market, that "forward compatibility" team is trying to get Xbox games playing on Windows PCs. I mean, it's nice that they're not planning on exiting with a "enjoy your games while the hardware still works" message, so that's nice. They still have a brand to protect via Microsoft so probably feel obligated to have a better exit strategy.

Xeofate5d ago (Edited 5d ago )

That is not their plan, their plan is to transfer users accounts to the cloud.

Phil Spencer himself said as much a few months back, plans could have changed but I think people are reading way too much into one statement where Phil said he would allow Epic on xbox because he wants to be able to sell xbox games directly on other platforms. Aka, instead of selling Sea of Thives through PSN he wants to have an xbox store to sell his games on PlayStation without giving PlayStation any money.

Again, it's extremely unlikely that Phil plans to put PC on xbox and licensing would prevent them from just giving out other publishers games purchased on xbox copies of thier games on PC, Microsoft does not own their games.

crazyCoconuts4d ago

The thing that doesn't align with the cloud strategy is the giving up on exclusives. You'd still need strong exclusives for cloud streaming - it's still a "platform" , just with a lower upfront hardware investment. I feel like they've learned what PS learned with PSNow long ago. We're not ready to stream games and it's only gonna lose them money to try at this point

FinalFantasyFanatic4d ago

I would love that, I'd buy up some of the Xbox games if they could run on PC, like the Rare Replay, Lost Odyssey and Dead or Alive Ultimate, probably a pipe dream though.

Show all comments (43)
90°

Nintendo's War Against Player-Made Content Will Hurt The Company In The End

Danish from eXputer: "Nintendo has historically gone against player-made content and emulation of its games. This has done much to harm the company's image."

XiNatsuDragnel12d ago

I agree nintendo hire some these folks to help in your games it'll help imo.

banger8811d ago

They need to stop announcing these mods and fan remakes until they're finished. Finish it, upload it, and then if Nintendo dmca's it tough shit. Once it's online, people can share it around, even if the original download gets taken down.

Jingsing11d ago

True, but most modders need constant admiration during the process to motivate them.

PRIMORDUS11d ago

Yup, once it's a torrent nothing can be done Nintendo is helpless at that point. But it would be wise if they just had a site on the dark web, it's also easy to use with Tor and no one will bother you.

mastershredder10d ago

This is all coming from the mouth of short-sighted fandom and grifting madness.
No.... it wont. There is a clear defined reason why they don't. This is nothing new. Make your own shi7 from your own original ideas especially if you are trying to capitalize of it it. Duh.

Yeah, hire people that have zero respect or understanding for an established process. Wow. Yep. Totally makes sense.

shinoff218310d ago

Those guys that made that sonic game got a gig from sega or something along those lines and that game was dope as hell. One of the best sonics as of late.