In the face of an ever-growing trend towards casual gaming, Namco Bandai has announced the formation of a new brand aimed at the mature end of the Western audience. It's called 'Surge'.
Namco Bandai tells us Surge is "a new studio and publishing label dedicated to providing cutting-edge, genre-defining games that are targeted at satiating the appetite of western gamers."
The first game to be published with the branding will be Afro Samurai, due out early next year. Forbes further reports that Namco's horror game remake, Splatterhouse, will follow in the summer and that a third, unannounced, title will follow in 2010, one based on "400 year-old literary references."
"This is an untapped market for us", said Andrew Lelchuk, executive VP of sales and marketing at Namco Bandai America. "The business is changing. I think that as much as people have turned their focus to casual gaming, core gaming is getting more sophisticated, and it needs a different level of devotion."
As Lelchuk's presence as corporo-soundbite provider du jour suggests, the brand comes from Namco Bandai's American arm. It seems likely that Namco titles, which are distributed by Atari in the UK, will carry the branding over here, but Atari was not available to confirm this at the time of Web.
The Surge brand is of note for two reasons. One is the aforementioned trend toward casual gaming in the industry. While no one (except the odd hysterical fanboy) is saying that hardcore gaming is going away, it seems that every time time a new brand or label is announced it's aimed at chasing the casual audience.
Despite that, however, it would seem Namco Bandai has good reason to take more direct aim at the mature market. According to Jesse Divnich, an analyst for Electronic Entertainment Design and Research, mature titles account for a larger share of the market this generation than they did in the last one - up from 19% to 27%.
Namco Bandai's push West is also indicative of Japan's rocky status as the worldwide hub of gaming. Square Enix has also been eyeing up the Western market, with rumours circulating that it is looking to purchase ailing Britsoft company Eidos. Meanwhile, an unnamed source from the company has been quoted as saying that the Japanese industry may not be able to maintain its position as the centre of global gaming.
Namco Bandai tells us Surge is "a new studio and publishing label dedicated to providing cutting-edge, genre-defining games that are targeted at satiating the appetite of western gamers."
The first game to be published with the branding will be Afro Samurai, due out early next year. Forbes further reports that Namco's horror game remake, Splatterhouse, will follow in the summer and that a third, unannounced, title will follow in 2010, one based on "400 year-old literary references."
"This is an untapped market for us", said Andrew Lelchuk, executive VP of sales and marketing at Namco Bandai America. "The business is changing. I think that as much as people have turned their focus to casual gaming, core gaming is getting more sophisticated, and it needs a different level of devotion."
As Lelchuk's presence as corporo-soundbite provider du jour suggests, the brand comes from Namco Bandai's American arm. It seems likely that Namco titles, which are distributed by Atari in the UK, will carry the branding over here, but Atari was not available to confirm this at the time of Web.
The Surge brand is of note for two reasons. One is the aforementioned trend toward casual gaming in the industry. While no one (except the odd hysterical fanboy) is saying that hardcore gaming is going away, it seems that every time time a new brand or label is announced it's aimed at chasing the casual audience.
Despite that, however, it would seem Namco Bandai has good reason to take more direct aim at the mature market. According to Jesse Divnich, an analyst for Electronic Entertainment Design and Research, mature titles account for a larger share of the market this generation than they did in the last one - up from 19% to 27%.
Namco Bandai's push West is also indicative of Japan's rocky status as the worldwide hub of gaming. Square Enix has also been eyeing up the Western market, with rumours circulating that it is looking to purchase ailing Britsoft company Eidos. Meanwhile, an unnamed source from the company has been quoted as saying that the Japanese industry may not be able to maintain its position as the centre of global gaming.
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