Namco Bandai Completes Atari European Distro Buy

Namco Bandai Games Europe says it has wrapped up the purchase of Atari's European distribution business, re-naming the new entity Namco Bandai Partners. Namco Bandai Partners will now oversee distribution of Namco Bandai Games, Atari titles and those of other publishing partners in Europe, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan. It'll operate in the UK as Namco Bandai Partners UK. Namco Bandai president and CEO Shu Takahara says the aim is to increase the company's international presence "to make our products appeal to a wider audience." Jackie Fromion, CEO of Namco Bandai Partners, adds: "With our committed and experienced teams of professionals around the world we provide a first class distribution solution, and we very much hope to see a growing number of publishers taking advantage of this. Our vision is to be a successful, attractive and profitable company as well as a great place to work." Namco Bandai also recently secured from Funimation the rights to games based on the Dragon Ball franchise, previously held by Atari.