Category:Namco

The Nakamura Amusement Manufacturing Company, or Namco (ナムコ) for short, is a Japanese amusement and theme park operator, as well as a video game developer and publisher who dominated the golden age of arcade games, mainly for the ultra-successful Pac-Man, which became the best-selling arcade game of all time and an international pop-culture icon.

The original Namco was founded in 1955 as Nakamura Seisakusho. They mainly manufactured amusement rides at a Yokohama department store. Namco's first video game was Gee Bee, but it wasn't until when Galaxian revolutionized the industry, as it was the first video game to use RGB color graphics. Next came another big hit Pac-Man, where it really revolutionized pop culture. Games such as Galaga, Dig Dug, Xevious, and Pole Position continued Namco's success.

Around two years after the Video Game Crash of 1983, Namco took a chance and fully purchased Drillimation Studios, an anime studio who was known for the hugely successful anime series The Drillimation Series. Its founder, Hiroshi Takajima, wanted to pursue a future in the video game industry. Drillimation's first game Mr. Driller went on to become a huge hit in Japan and North America, selling more than 15 million copies, with a large majority of sales being the home console and personal computer ports.

In 2006, Namco absorbed the video game division of its sister company Bandai and formally renamed itself Bandai Namco Entertainment. As of today, the name exists as an in-name only unit used specifically for marketing older content, specifically their classics. Namco is also known for creating even licensing successful franchises such as Galaxian, Dig Dug, The Drillimation Series, Xevious, Ridge Racer, Ace Combat, Tekken, Soul and Tales.