yellowlightman Posted November 17, 2003 Posted November 17, 2003 (edited) Just saw this article on Gamespot, looks like earlier comments about there being no Nintendo takeover of Bandai might be false. According to the article, industry insiders feel that Yamashina's suspicions about the motives of UFJ Bank and Nintendo are correct. One anonymous source commented "[Due to poor earnings] Nintendo is in a tight spot. UFJ is trying to strengthen the company while there's still time..." Article is here: http://www.gamespot.com/all/news/news_6083620.html Personally I like Nintendo, so I wouldn't mind if they did get a hold of Bandai. It'd really help out there consoles, and we might just see the next Macross game on the Gamecube. Edited November 17, 2003 by yellowlightman Quote
MrDisco Posted November 17, 2003 Posted November 17, 2003 a bandai rep has said not to buy into the rumous and that nintendo will not be taking over bandai lock stock and smoking barrel. Quote
yellowlightman Posted November 17, 2003 Author Posted November 17, 2003 a bandai rep has said not to buy into the rumous and that nintendo will not be taking over bandai lock stock and smoking barrel. Well, not lock stock and barrel, but it definately looks as though Nintendo is trying to get a controlling amoutn of stock in the company (which wouldnt be much, around 7-8%). Or at least Bandai thinks so... Quote
Nightbat Posted November 17, 2003 Posted November 17, 2003 Nintendo is better of being bought by Bandai, but that's just my opinion Quote
Radd Posted November 17, 2003 Posted November 17, 2003 Nintendo is better of being bought by Bandai, but that's just my opinion Uh, no. Just no. Do I really need to point out why that would be bad? Quote
Zentrandude Posted November 17, 2003 Posted November 17, 2003 Woohooo , Gundam/Mario Crossover god no. its mario gundam and his mushroom-ish gundam suits. Quote
Wes Posted November 18, 2003 Posted November 18, 2003 I think they just want to end that joke that is the WonderSwan series. Quote
yellowlightman Posted November 18, 2003 Author Posted November 18, 2003 I think they just want to end that joke that is the WonderSwan series. The Wonderswan is already dead, the production stopped on the systems over six months ago and the last few games are trickling out now. It's a shame it died, since it did better than any other handheld in recent history. Disapointing it didn't do better, Bandai definately tried seeing as how they put their most popular franchises into it. And unlike SNK, they actually had the money to make it worthwhile and succeed, but it's hard to go against the GameBoy juggernaut. Quote
Blue Stryker Posted November 18, 2003 Posted November 18, 2003 I think they just want to end that joke that is the WonderSwan series. The Wonderswan is already dead, the production stopped on the systems over six months ago and the last few games are trickling out now. Just how many games did it have? Quote
Yoshi Posted November 18, 2003 Posted November 18, 2003 I think they just want to end that joke that is the WonderSwan series. The Wonderswan is already dead, the production stopped on the systems over six months ago and the last few games are trickling out now. It's a shame it died, since it did better than any other handheld in recent history. Disapointing it didn't do better, Bandai definately tried seeing as how they put their most popular franchises into it. And unlike SNK, they actually had the money to make it worthwhile and succeed, but it's hard to go against the GameBoy juggernaut. 100% agree. The Wonderswan was actually a great system with great games, especially if you like RPG and games from anime franchises. *Yoshi kisses his Wonderswan* Quote
rnurmin Posted November 18, 2003 Posted November 18, 2003 Nintendo is better of being bought by Bandai, but that's just my opinion Uh, no. Just no. Do I really need to point out why that would be bad? Hm..... can you explain why? If Nintendo really is in financial trouble, a fund injection from a new company sometimes helps. Not to mention to prevent RIF's I'm just curious Quote
Radd Posted November 18, 2003 Posted November 18, 2003 Well, Nintendo isn't in dire financial straights. They've just had their first losses since 1962. That's not half bad. Many other companies report losses more often then that. Sure, any losses is a bad thing, but overall Nintendo is not in terrible shape. My reasoning has little to do with how deep Bandai's pockets may be, however, and more to do with the business practices of the two companies. Nintendo is a very unique company. They could be a lot more successful than they are, but their approach to the market is geared more towards the dedicated gamer. Quality over quantity and all that. They tend to take their time making a new product, waiting until it's done before they release it. They also tend to give a lot of influence to their creative minds, to the point of putting effort into a franchise like, let's say 'Metroid', that have consistantly flopped for them. Bandai doesn't tend to put much effort into franchises that aren't a sure fire hit and I just don't think Nintendo would continue doing things that way if a company like Bandai ever bought them out. Do you? Quote
yellowlightman Posted November 18, 2003 Author Posted November 18, 2003 I think they just want to end that joke that is the WonderSwan series. The Wonderswan is already dead, the production stopped on the systems over six months ago and the last few games are trickling out now. Just how many games did it have? Quite a few, check out this site: http://www.swan.channel.or.jp/swan/softwar..._line_kind.html. I dont know if its a complete list, but that is Bandai's official site. I think Yoshi and I are some of the few Wonderswan fans. A good system, definately lacked in some areas but can't be beat in the strategy or RPG genres, and tons of Gundam and other Bandai license games. Quote
yellowlightman Posted November 19, 2003 Author Posted November 19, 2003 New article about the whole situation on Anime News Network. http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/article.php?id=4355 Nintendo now owns 2.7% of Bandai, while Yamashina owns 5.2%. The UFJ Bank, with whom Nintendo worked to acquire its shares, owns a further 6% of Bandai's common stock. If Yamashina had agreed to sell the 2% that had been requested of him, Nintendo would have owned 4.7%. Already, Nintendo and UFJ's combined 8.7% is thought to be the largest single voting block of Bandai's widely dispersed shares. Despite only owning 2.7% of Bandai, if Nintendo is working with UFJ towards a strategic takeover of Bandai, they are actually in a very strong position to do so. The other thing it mentions is that Nintendo owning a majority would likely hurt Bandai's relationship with Sony (duh). I'm wondering if Nintendo did gain a majority of stock in Bandai, woudl they try to phase out Playstation development? The new Gundam and Super Robot Wars and all the other Bandai franchise games coming out on Nintendo systems would certainly help to sell more Gamecubes, but for a whiel at leats it would likely hurt sales. Kind of an interesting problem, assuming a takeover goes through. Quote
JB0 Posted November 19, 2003 Posted November 19, 2003 I think they just want to end that joke that is the WonderSwan series. The Wonderswan is already dead, the production stopped on the systems over six months ago and the last few games are trickling out now. Actually, as I understand it, Bandia's still willing to make Swan Crystals for sale, they just only take large orders, like the kind a major retail store would place. Quote
yellowlightman Posted November 19, 2003 Author Posted November 19, 2003 I think they just want to end that joke that is the WonderSwan series. The Wonderswan is already dead, the production stopped on the systems over six months ago and the last few games are trickling out now. Actually, as I understand it, Bandia's still willing to make Swan Crystals for sale, they just only take large orders, like the kind a major retail store would place. Really? Thats cool, except I imagine there's enough units in the market right now. You can find one on eBay for like $50. Maybe I should upgrade my Color to a Crystal. Quote
JB0 Posted November 19, 2003 Posted November 19, 2003 I think they just want to end that joke that is the WonderSwan series. The Wonderswan is already dead, the production stopped on the systems over six months ago and the last few games are trickling out now. Actually, as I understand it, Bandia's still willing to make Swan Crystals for sale, they just only take large orders, like the kind a major retail store would place. Really? Thats cool, except I imagine there's enough units in the market right now. You can find one on eBay for like $50. Maybe I should upgrade my Color to a Crystal. Well, the big problem is that the people that can place the size orders Bandain's looking for really don't care to. Quote
Aegis! Posted December 16, 2003 Posted December 16, 2003 (edited) I wonder how this takeover could affect the Macross distribution situation worldwide , I mean , if Nintendo , a widely respected and famous company in the US and internationally , buys Bandai which is currently distributing Macross Zero in Japan , could they guide Bandai to finally kick HG´s ass and distribute Macross series outside Japan ? who knows ...it all depends on how much interest does Nintendo have in the anime franchises that Bandai has a hold of. Edited December 16, 2003 by Aegis! Quote
yellowlightman Posted December 16, 2003 Author Posted December 16, 2003 I wonder how this takeover could affect the Macross distribution situation worldwide , I mean , if Nintendo , a widely respected and famous company in the US and internationally , buys Bandai which is currently distributing Macross Zero in Japan , could they guide Bandai to finally kick HG´s ass and distribute Macross series outside Japan ? who knows ...it all depends on how much interest does Nintendo have in the anime franchises that Bandai has a hold of. If Nintendo does end up taking control of Bandai, I doubt that much woudl change in terms of anime distribution. Likely Bandai would remain much as it is, and carry on business much as they do now. The only major difference I could think of would be video games, and I have no idea if Nintendo would try to get rid of all PS2 development or what; but I'm guessing anime distribution wouldn't change much. Not to mention that on the Bandai anime totem pole Macross is pretty far down there, definately less of a money maker than Gundam or more recent stuff like One Piece. Quote
Druna Skass Posted December 16, 2003 Posted December 16, 2003 Hmm, if Nintendo gets control of Bandai I may as well snap up some PS2 Gundam games while I can. Broke-ass people like me can't afford two consoles... Quote
Mr.Sci-Fi Posted December 16, 2003 Posted December 16, 2003 Woohooo , Gundam/Mario Crossover god no. its mario gundam and his mushroom-ish gundam suits. Um it's called SD gundam. Quote
Extra Large Mumma Posted December 16, 2003 Posted December 16, 2003 Interesting. Is Bandai doing that bad these days? Quote
nemesis120 Posted December 16, 2003 Posted December 16, 2003 Perhaps I should point out that gamespot has no clue about this stuff. First is that management won't care about 5 or 10%, but after that they will care. And if you don't have management on board, you're pretty much screwed since they can flood the market with shares. Not to mention, if you aren't management, you have to have management replaced to have a takeover (more or less), which is really hard. Management's nominations for the board win if only one vote is cast in their favor, and if you aren't management you have to nominate your own people and send them out to every stockholder (altogether this costs a couple million). So, odds are, this isn't happening. Quote
Jolly Rogers Posted December 16, 2003 Posted December 16, 2003 Interesting. Is Bandai doing that bad these days? Should be the other way around. The only incentive for Nintendo to buy Bandai is if the Big N is doing poorly financially and adding Bandai to their assets would improve their bottomline and their prospective attractive to investors. Bandai's been raking in the bucks after a banker took over in the late 1990s. Nintendo OTOH had to slash the price on their GameCube by 50% just to stay in the game. Quote
yellowlightman Posted December 16, 2003 Author Posted December 16, 2003 Interesting. Is Bandai doing that bad these days? Should be the other way around. The only incentive for Nintendo to buy Bandai is if the Big N is doing poorly financially and adding Bandai to their assets would improve their bottomline and their prospective attractive to investors. Bandai's been raking in the bucks after a banker took over in the late 1990s. Nintendo OTOH had to slash the price on their GameCube by 50% just to stay in the game. Bzzzt, try again. Nintendo's consoles haven't been doing that well lately but that's not to say they're in financial troubles. Last I heard they were sitting on $5 billion thanks to Pokemon, not to mention the GBA which consistently sells really well with some very strong selling games. Obviously they're not as diversified as Microsoft or Sony, but implying that they're in financial trouble is quite wrong. Quote
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