The fresh, 30-person outfit is set to work on games designed to run on mobile and browser, with the aim being to expand the publisher's role in the North American smartphone market.
Indeed, speaking on the office's opening, Namco Bandai Studios president Hajime Nakatani noted that the North American market is "quite big", and that there was "room to grow for us".
Dual play
Nakatani went on to say that Namco Bandai can draw on popular characters from its older games to provide inspiration for the studio's run on the mobile market, as well as tapping into its profitable stable of Japanese arcade games - many of which are unknown in North America.
Namco Bandai officially opened the studio at a ceremony in Vancouver's new Centre for Digital Media (CDM), with the centre's director Richard Smith claiming he's optimistic about the opportunities the new office will open up for CDM students.
Vancouver's Centre for Digital Media
Smith is also optimistic that the relationship between the CDM and Namco Bandai will benefit the Tokyo-based company as well, noting that the studio's team of locals will "help them design games that North Americans want to play."
[source: Vancouver Sun]
