Namco Limited (株式会社ナムコ, Kabushiki Kaisha Namuko?), from NAkamura Manufacturing COmpany, is an amusement company based in Japan, best known overseas for video games development.
On September 29, 2005, Namco officially merged with Japanese toymaker Bandai to form Namco Bandai Holdings Inc (NBHD), one of the largest entertainment companies in Japan. Namco became a wholly owned subsidiary of the holding company. Although officially the merger was absorption, "Under the holding company, Namco, Bandai and other affiliated companies will mutually cooperate and contribute to the growth of the whole group based on their respective business strategies.
Under the holding company, on March 31, 2006, Namco merged with Bandai's video game operations and was renamed Namco Bandai Games Inc. (NBGI), which is also the head of NBHD's Game Contents Strategic Business Unit (SBU).
Namco Ltd.'s arcade venue, theme park and exploratory businesses as well as the Namco Ltd. corporate name and logo were spun off to create a new sister company. (Namco 2: see below). It is the head of NBHD's Amusement SBU.
Namco produced many famous games include Pac-Man and the Tekken fighting-game series.