In an interview with MCVUK, Bandai Namco Europe’s SVP marketing, digital and content Hervé Hoerdt, stated something that will please a lot of PC gamers. While the publisher wants to release its games to the Epic Games Store, it is not interested in any Epic Games Store exclusivity deals.
As Hoerdt said:
“We cannot do everything and Japanese [companies] are not risk averse but we’re going slowly. So we have a full platform strategy. The main focus for us is the consumer and the brand. And for each brand we decide what’s the best way to satisfy the consumer and to engage the widest audience possible. So for instance, I don’t see any point of putting Tekken 7 on Epic Store. Epic is just another store. It’s fantastic, they have a lot of strength and [lots of] users, the business model is attractive to us because it’s more profitable but still, their interest is, if I’m correct, exclusivity. And this is not our vision. We want our content to be available for as many fans as possible. I don’t think we’ll deal with Epic in the short term, while we have this strategy. But of course, if they’re open, we’ll go there.”
So yeah, don’t expect any of Bandai Namco’s games to abandon Steam in favour of the Epic Games Store. As Hoerdt stated, the publisher will start putting its games on that store when Epic Games opens it to everyone.
It’s really interesting – and consumer-friendly – Bandai Namco’s stance regarding the Epic Games Store. In the past few months, we’ve seen numerous publishers abandoning Steam in favour of Epic Games Store. Right now, and as Tim Sweeney has already stated, Epic is looking to sign more and more exclusivity deals. After all, that was the reason why Epic denied selling DARQ after its developer turned down Epic’s offer.
As of now, we don’t know when Epic Games will to open its store to more publishers and developers!
John is the founder and Editor in Chief at DSOGaming. He is a PC gaming fan and highly supports the modding and indie communities. Before creating DSOGaming, John worked on numerous gaming websites. While he is a die-hard PC gamer, his gaming roots can be found on consoles. John loved – and still does – the 16-bit consoles, and considers SNES to be one of the best consoles. Still, the PC platform won him over consoles. That was mainly due to 3DFX and its iconic dedicated 3D accelerator graphics card, Voodoo 2. John has also written a higher degree thesis on the “The Evolution of PC graphics cards.”
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Good
The Chinese fear the samurai.
Now dipshit gamers will celebrate them as heroes for staring down the tyrant that is Tim Sweeney and Epic Mega Games, not for one second stopping to think that maybe a massive publisher like Namco don’t need exclusivity deals.
Or, that they actually have dignity. Unlike those who sellout.
F*ck them, F*ck you too.
Nice logic you have there…
“….stopping to think that maybe a massive publisher like Namco likely wouldn’t benefit from exclusivity deals.”
There ya go. Now, it’s accurate.
Definitely will buy their games when they come to EGS.
Wow
Isn’t there a bridge you’re supposed to be guarding somewhere?
hi fernando i’m also autistic lets be friends
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/17c8169a1b000e1a9b71c30e2355ac79f8d54afeb85024c2880247e2515a7f4e.gif
Developers with dignity. So rare these days.
Make no mistake. Namco doesn’t have dignity, this is purely a business move which is in their better interests. If they thought they had the popularity to make exclusivity work, they would jump on it in a heartbeat.
That’s what I was going to say , “Seems we all benefit here”, however I figured not, as such was and is common sense . Must it really be said? And besides, Gaming itself is dying, Need For Speed 2019, may not be the best game, however it is the best game this year, think about that .
Seems we all benefit here . Well not all of us, they don’t respect my Ultrawide enough, no normal fixes such as hex editing works outside of, Xenovese 2 LMAO!. : (
As far as Anime games they make go lmao, at least they also allow their games to be easily modifed too .
Good!
Nice
Agreed, it’s just not worth pissing off a massive portion of your fanbase by taking away options from them.
Namco bandai needs to add more budget and security to their games and they would be really good anime games publishers
Amazing news.
Epic trash store will not se my PC ever.
Good decision,and this company stance will give big middle finger to all greedy western publisher out there that sell their soul to Timclusive…
Don’t be too quick to give credit undeserved to Namco. They are hardly saints of any degree in the garbage tactics of this industry.
You know a part of me hope they’d go Epic Failclusive. I’d give my left nut to see Dark Souls 4/Bloodborne 2/Sekiro 2 go Epic Failsclusive just to see how many “Souls-Like” Fuqboys would be on Suicide watch. Damn, what a missed opportunity.
Good to hear. I own all the Dark Souls titles (including remasters) on PC along with the Tales series and a few other RPGs from BN.
Epic, make piracy great again.
Makes sense because a lot of their games use UE4 now… Oh wait LOL 😀 Well I am glad they did not go with it because it’s not like their games are must have games for the majority of people.. Smart move on their part.
Nice to see someone that gets it.
Wouldn’t call Tekken exactly niche myself, but that’s just me. 🙂
And Soul Calibur.
What a f*cking hypocrite when Namco Bandai’s games are exclusive to Steam. Every single one of the games listed at https://store.steampowered.com/publisher/BANDAINAMCO/#browse requires Steam.
What a f*cking hypocrite when Namco Bandai’s games are exclusive to Steam. Every single one of the games listed at https://store.steampowered.com/publisher/BANDAINAMCO/#browse requires Steam.
Did you not read the f*cking article? The entire point was that Bandai would like to put their games on Epic as long as they don’t have to be exclusive to Epic. You can (rightfully) criticise them for not being on GOG, but unfortunately most Japanese companies are afraid of piracy and will not go for DRM Free.
You apparently don’t understand how the Epic Game Store (EGS) works. Not every game on EGS is exclusive to it. For example Darksiders III and Cyberpunk 2077 are sold on it, and they are not exclusive to the Epic Game Store. Namco Bandai’s games could also be sold on it too without being exclusive. Namco Bandai is just being hypocritical by making its games exclusive to Steam. Namco has even tied many of its games to Steam’s API’s including some of its Pac-Man games which needlessly use Steam’s f*cking steaminput so you can’t even use a standard game controller with the game without running Steam. The games would have to be reprogrammed to run without Steam.
You apparently don’t understand how the Epic Game Store (EGS) works. Not every game on EGS is exclusive to it. For example Darksiders III and Cyberpunk 2077 are sold on it, and they are not exclusive to the Epic Game Store. Namco Bandai’s games could also be sold on it too without being exclusive. Namco Bandai is just being hypocritical by making its games exclusive to Steam. Namco has even tied many of its games to Steam’s API’s including some of its Pac-Man games which needlessly use Steam’s f*cking steaminput so you can’t even use a standard game controller with the game without running Steam. The games would have to be reprogrammed to run without Steam.
You apparently don’t understand how the Epic Game Store (EGS) works. Not every game on EGS is exclusive to it. For example Darksiders III and Cyberpunk 2077 are sold on it, and they are not exclusive to the Epic Game Store. Namco Bandai’s games could also be sold on it too without being exclusive. Namco Bandai is just being hypocritical by making its games exclusive to Steam. Namco has even tied many of its games to Steam’s API’s including some of its Pac-Man games which needlessly use Steam’s f*cking steaminput so you can’t even use a standard game controller with the game without running Steam. The games would have to be reprogrammed to run without Steam.
First, yes, I read the article and understood it. Apparently you did not. Here’s the proof. The Namco Bandai rep is talking out of both sides of his mouth when he says “I don’t see any point of putting Tekken 7 on Epic Store. Epic is just another store…We want our content to be available for as many fans as possible.” If Namco Bandai really wanted its games to be “available for as many fans as possible”, then it would put its games on as many stores as possible NOT be exclusive to one store (Steam).
Second, you apparently don’t understand how the Epic Game Store (EGS) works. Not every game on EGS is exclusive to it. For example Darksiders III and Cyberpunk 2077 are sold on it, and they are not exclusive to the Epic Game Store. Namco Bandai’s games could also be sold on it too without being exclusive. Namco Bandai is just being hypocritical by making its games exclusive to Steam. Namco has even tied many of its games to Steam’s API’s including some of its Pac-Man games which needlessly use Steam’s f*cking steaminput so you can’t even use a standard game controller with the game without running Steam. The games would have to be reprogrammed to run without Steam. Namco Bandai is just spewing hypocritical bullsh*t. If it wanted its games not to be exclusive to Steam, they already would be, and they wouldn’t be tied to Steam.
Pretty sure its Epic that determines the exclusivity, not the game publisher/dev. Latest example would be DARQ, which the dev said Epic replied they would not sell that game on EGS unless its is exclusive to EGS. Refer: dsogaming.com/news/epic-games-wanted-darq-as-an-exclusive-developer-refused-the-offer-in-order-to-keep-his-word/
Bandai Namco is still a middle-tier publisher in the West; I doubt they can put a counter demand against Epic.
That game in question (DARQ) had not yet been released on Steam at the time of Epic’s supposed offer. It is also from a tiny indie developer. I seriously doubt Epic would refuse Namco Bandai’s existing catalog on EGS as it didn’t refuse THQ’s. Comparing Namco Bandai, which currently has 63 games on Steam, to DARQ’s Untold Games is laughable.
It shouldn’t have matter whether the game is release or not, only that Epic did state the term for full exclusive to EGS, for a game somebody else made, in order to get release on EGS. Even if they are only going to dictate that term to some developers, since Cyberpunk 2077 is going to be on everywhere, it still shows that ultimately Epic is the deciding party in the exclusivity decision. They may not force it on everybody, but if they do then those publisher/developers can only choose between releasing exclusively on EGS, or not release on EGS at all. If they only force it for small indie developer, then it shows Epic’s cowardice and that they are not really about working for the developers at all.
As for Namco Bandai, I stated they are middle tier publisher, not a tiny indie developer. They are around the same as 505 Games, whom just release Control as, not surprisingly, an exclusive to EGS. You would be nuts to think Namco Bandai is anything well known in the West; most of their catalogue is Japanese games and they even have 7 Pac-Man games, so forgive me if I don’t think that “63 games” really mean they are a well established publisher. They are not Ubisoft, THQ or GOG; they won’t be countering any decision from Epic.
Also, as of today, the are about 79 exclusive games on EGS from their whole catalogue of around 149 games. That’s about 53%. That is an unusual high number of developer that is forgoing Steam for no reason, unless Epic is involved.
Of course it matters. If the game is not yet released, Epic can request that it be exclusive to its store. Otherwise Epic can’t since developers and publishers usually aren’t going to remove existing games from Steam (excepting Rocket League which Epic bought outright).
No, it shows that Epic is using its funds to wisely. Epic is funding and supporting games by paying developers and publishers for limited exclusive rights. It’s a fair trade that can be the difference between a game being supported properly after release since such support costs developers money.
I would be willing to bet that the percentage of games which are exclusive to Steam is far greater than 53%. With Namco Bandai it’s almost 100%. Publishers like Sega also have far more than 50% of their titles exclusive to Steam.
I can understand this if a game have not been put on any online stores at all, but there are quite a few games that had Steam store pages and community pages that then went EGS exclusive afterwards. It is unacceptable to have a game announced on Steam with planned release dates, and then lock it for a year after.
Epic can continue to fund developers for EGS version of the games, without affecting other version of the same game. I don’t mind Epic paying devs to get their games on EGS, but I don’t see the point for Epic to pay devs to prevent other release of the same game. A dev can break other versions of a game as much as they want, without affecting the EGS version of that game. So this is less about quality control and more about Epic denying other stores the same games. I wouldn’t even mind if the Epic versions get faster and more frequent updates due to Epic’s money, but Epic really should not care what other stores a publisher or developer wants to do business with.
The difference is that Valve never paid anybody to do that. If devs are lazy and don’t make other store versions, that is not the fault of Valve. All games on Steam have the possibility of going to other stores in less than one year after release, including going to EGS, and Valve does not care where the games go later. But that does not apply to EGS exclusive games because Epic demands that the game does not go anywhere else without their approval.
Learn to read, dumbass.
You need to learn to understand what you read, dumb@ss.
I read the article and understood it. Apparently you did not. Here’s the proof. The Namco Bandai rep is talking out of both sides of his mouth when he says “I don’t see any point of putting Tekken 7 on Epic Store. Epic is just another store…We want our content to be available for as many fans as possible.” If Namco Bandai really wanted its games to be “available for as many fans as possible”, then it would put its games on as many stores as possible NOT be exclusive to one store (Steam).
Not every game on EGS is exclusive to it. For example Darksiders III and Cyberpunk 2077 are sold on it, and they are not exclusive to the Epic Game Store. Namco Bandai’s games could also be sold on it too without being exclusive.
You need to learn to understand what you read, dumb@ss.
I read the article and understood it. Apparently you did not. Here’s the proof. The Namco Bandai rep is talking out of both sides of his mouth when he says “I don’t see any point of putting Tekken 7 on Epic Store. Epic is just another store…We want our content to be available for as many fans as possible.” If Namco Bandai really wanted its games to be “available for as many fans as possible”, then it would put its games on as many stores as possible NOT be exclusive to one store (Steam).
Not every game on EGS is exclusive to it. For example Darksiders III and Cyberpunk 2077 are sold on it, and they are not exclusive to the Epic Game Store. Namco Bandai’s games could also be sold on it too without being exclusive.
The title reads “Bandai Namco is not interested in any Epic Games Store EXCLUSIVITY deals”
That would mean making all Bandai Namco games available ONLY in EGS.
And Bandai Namco has Little Nightmares available on GOG, as for why not more games from them are available there, I would guess that’s GOG’s fault, their curation process to decide which games are available on their store and which are not seems to be pretty arbitrary.
Moron.
Sarcasm, it’s not for everyone…
I’ve been saying this sh*t for years. Just because it’s not written in a contract doesn’t mean it’s not exclusive. You can’t buy Namco, SEGA, Rockstar and many more games on GOG or other stores so they’re stuck on Steam. Exclusive to that service and will always be.
You cant because developers/publishers dont want to sell drm free copies nor manage several store specific versions of code. Games written specifically to utilize steamworks features also can’t easily translate to other platforms. So it’s not as easy in a lot of cases to pickup your code and sell it anywhere
That would be because steam is the biggest store other than gog that sells anyones games. And gog still requires the game to be drm free. It’s not hypocritical to only sell on steam if you WOULD/COULD sell elsewhere and choose not to do so because of exclusivity restrictions. Which the spokesperson in the article said they wanted to do
“The main focus for us is the consumer and the brand.”
can west publisher think like this ? no wonder they going backward
Finally!!! Honestly… Epic sh*t store should be getting games and instead of paying devs for exclusivity….. use that money to sell the games at a discount and win gamers over with better deals. if you want to win customers… you gotta show them you care
I’d have laughed if he’d instead said,
“You’re seriously asking if we as a proud Japanese company would sign an exclusivity deal with Tencent of China? LMFAO! GTFO!”
It’s just another store front to buy games from like all of the others to me. If I’m going to buy a game, I don’t really care who is selling it to me. I suppose the same anti-Epic people with their business ethics probably use that same business ethical thinking when they go out on the streets to buy their weed.
I respect that.. but I got 2000 games on steam and steam is the one i WANT because all my friends and games are there.. Now, I did not mind about Epic store, I even bought Metro/the Sinking City/Control on it, but the lack of options, the security breeches and the way they deal with excusivity is just stoopid. At LEAST give me the option to buy it on steam OR Epic! Epic is using ways to make it VERY easy for most people to dislike them and I do not see them gaining any favores this way.