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Bandai Namco and ILCA Establishes Bandai Namco Aces Inc.

Nanashrew

Nanashrew

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TOKYO (July 1, 2022) – Bandai Namco Entertainment Inc. and ILCA Inc. are proud to announce the establishment of a new company named Bandai Namco Aces Inc., headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. Bandai Namco Entertainment Inc. has cultivated its game production expertise through iconic series such as TEKKEN and ACE COMBAT, while ILCA, Inc. has the technical capabilities to produce high quality content using state-of-the-art technology. Embracing the name “Aces” as representing those who are best or leading in any field, the newly created studio will leverage the know-how of both companies and continue to deliver deep and lasting, high-quality content to fans around the world, including for the ACE COMBAT series
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Website with quotes from the CEO
www.bnaces.co.jp

Bandai Namco Aces Inc.

This is the official website of Bandai Namco Aces Inc. which is mainly engaged in planning, development and operation of home video games, network contents and PC contents.
www.bnaces.co.jp www.bnaces.co.jp
 
Namco must have big (14+ mil) expectations for the next Ace Combat. Hope the studio doesn’t get shuttered too soon!
 
Explains much about ILCA developed Bamco games and generally fitting into what I think is happening between the companies.
 
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I kind of expected Bandai Namco to try and establish a proper studio for Ace Combat. It seemed like they wanted to have Ace Combat be one of their pillars but, lacked the core staff for it (hence why AC7 took so long). Hooking in ILCA into this studio means ILCA will have a vested interest in having a team dedicated to Ace Combat and whatever they have this studio try rather than ILCA being busy with other contracts.
 
President & CEO Takuya Iwasaki: The era of Singularity by AI is just around the corner.
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That's quite the claim from the CEO.

How long is this corner...
 
The new office is a considerable distance away from Bandai Namco Studios and in the ILCA office building itself (this is on the 5th and ILCA is on the 7th), very interesting choice.

My read us that Bamco must be pretty pleased with ILCA, and having ex-employee as the CEO of ILCA probably helps in communication and interpersonal relationships with Bamco itself. AC7 development was widely known to be troubled within the JP industry, and I don't think Kono can avoid responsibility for how it went down. However, the game succeeded despite all that, and I think this is Bamco putting Kono together with people who he seem to be able to work with.

In case anyone is wondering, the CEO of ILCA and the CEO of this joint company is ex-Namco and ex-cavia


In other news, "Ace Combat" Kono changed his hairstyle.
 
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poochy said:
Namco must have big (14+ mil) expectations for the next Ace Combat. Hope the studio doesn’t get shuttered too soon!
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Is that bigger than the total of the series or something? Seems like an absurd target.

Also their website lists their capital at 10 million yen. That's uh, like $75,000 USD. I've got more than that in my 401k.
 
So , is ILCA now a Bamco subsidiary? I'm confused whether this is what is happening or if this is a separate joint effort between the two with regular ILCA still existing.
 
Hellraider said:
So , is ILCA now a Bamco subsidiary? I'm confused whether this is what is happening or if this is a separate joint effort between the two with regular ILCA still existing.
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It's a joint company. ILCA will still exist separately for now. Basically, it's turning Project Aces into its own studio with a team from ILCA being the main staff. ILCA will continue to work on a contract basis on other series in addition to this.
 
That seems like a smart move from both companies. Especially in the era of long-term support and updates for games.
mariodk18 said:
So it’s all but guaranteed that none of their games will come to Switch
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To be fair we are talking about 23/24 games using UE5 at the earliest. Don't think anyone would expect or even want to play them on OG Switch with Drake being out by then.

It's on Nintendo to make sure the hardware can handle these projects and the devs are on board.
 
Astrogamer said:
I kind of expected Bandai Namco to try and establish a proper studio for Ace Combat. It seemed like they wanted to have Ace Combat be one of their pillars but, lacked the core staff for it (hence why AC7 took so long). Hooking in ILCA into this studio means ILCA will have a vested interest in having a team dedicated to Ace Combat and whatever they have this studio try rather than ILCA being busy with other contracts.
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i could have sworn the Project Aces was their dev studio or are they more of the creative types?
 
biglo25 said:
i could have sworn the Project Aces was their dev studio or are they more of the creative types?
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Project Aces is a development team, not a full studio and over the years they've been around, the team has been split apart and put on different projects - hence why Ace Combat games have been so infrequent.
 
ggx2ac said:
That's quite the claim from the CEO.

How long is this corner...
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I'm guessing this is a hint about Ace Combat 3, which takes place in 2040 (also in his quote) lol

Really hope we get AC3 remake / sequel :P

biglo25 said:
i could have sworn the Project Aces was their dev studio or are they more of the creative types?
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Project Aces is just a name for the team really. AC7 was co-developed with BN Singapore and also ILCA, amongst other outsourcing studios
 
It's quite interesting that they set up a new joint venture just for Ace Combat. They must have a lot of faith in the IP.
 
Ghostsonplanets said:
It's quite interesting that they set up a new joint venture just for Ace Combat. They must have a lot of faith in the IP.
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Even if suferred development hell, AC7 was a huge success for Bandai Namco. Best-selling game in the franchise (over 3 million sold as of August 2021 + it was available on Game Pass during 15 months so the total number of players is probably very high).

The thing I'm surprised though is that AC8's development appears to have begin quite late (in my opinion).
 
This great for AC fans. I assumed AC8 was coming (eventually) but it’s good to know the series will have more development stability going forward.
 
Vault-Tec said:
Even if suffered development hell, AC7 was a huge success for Bandai Namco. Best-selling game in the franchise (over 3 million sold as of August 2021 + it was available on Game Pass during 15 months so the total number of players is probably very high).

The thing I'm surprised though is that AC8's development appears to have begin quite late (in my opinion).
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Hopefully they will eventually discuss the thought process that led to a new team being created with ILCA in more detail but it could be a number of reasons. Lack of available staff as mentioned by others (maybe reassigned before long tail sales led to a strategic review), Covid pandemic, an extended post-mortem and/or pre-production due to Ace Combat 7. Top Gun Maverick delays meaning they waited until after the DLC eventually released before making the announcement. Negotiations with ILCA taking longer than expected. Some or all of the above. Who knows. Maybe they attempted to develop the game as per the same arrangement for AC7 before deciding to adopt a new approach.

Few things I'll be looking for when any new project is unveiled are whether or not they reincorporate ideas from Ace Combat Infinity such as its more varied multi-player modes such as including co-op vs computer where two teams of two compete to gain points destroying AI enemies. Levels based on missions and/or bosses from previous games (remaking the AC Infinity single player campaign to include in AC8). The status of any ongoing licenses from Russian plane manufacturers will have to be addressed as well at some point.

Cancelled Project Aces titles being revived such as Brave Arms or Xevious among others is a new possibility depending on the size of the new team & the scale of its remit from Bandai Namco.
 
poochy said:
Namco must have big (14+ mil) expectations for the next Ace Combat. Hope the studio doesn’t get shuttered too soon!
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Is this number something they said somewhere? I really doubt Ace Combat is going to be competing with Monster Hunter, Elden Ring, or Splatoon anytime soon...
 
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