My first interview of the day was with Bo Bandy, Senior Marketing Manager of Namco Games. Namco Games is a part of Namco Networks, a worldwide multimedia conglomerate.
She showed me a couple of games they have coming up for release sometimes later this year, one a match three with an interesting story aspect that will take players into Hollywood, and one a hidden object game with some interesting elements that are out of the ordinary paired with some beautiful artwork. We discussed the emergence of Namco Games in the industry and what’s happening to the Casual Games space today.

GA - Tell me a little bit about Namco games, because it’s relatively new to me.
Bo - In New York, we are really well known for our console group and what we’re doing on consoles. That’s actually our sister subsidiary company, so we operate completely independent of them. What our group does, we’re Namco Networks, and we are all casual, mobile iPhone, and PC. PC is actually our newest endeavor. We launched our first set of games about 3 months ago. And those were sort of our classics, so Pac Man, and an arcade game called. Now we are going to move away from all that retro arcade stuff, especially since we know it doesn’t make sense for a casual market. There’s not a huge demand for arcade titles. They were really safe for us to enter a market with, but that’s not what we were wanting.

GA – So you are going to stick with PC…
Bo – Yeah, we’ll stay in PC. We’re actually going to launch flash games as well in mid August, and a lot more downloadable content, a lot of original ideas.

GA – Do you plan on entering into the realm of Mac?
Bo – Yes. Because our president has a Mac and he’s always saying, ‘None of the companies want to make Mac games.’ Everything Nice and Burger Time both actually have a Mac build right now. Right now all of our games are only available through our site. When the games go to the major portals, there will be Mac versions as well, for all of them. That’s going to be a standard for us. We’re just working out… issues to be able to solve some of those. It is really really important, and they definitely will be coming.

GA – Do you have any views on different kinds of innovation in the Casual Gaming space?
Bo – I think that’s one of the things that is making being in the Casual space right now kind of exciting. Because I think Casual Game players are becoming more sophisticated, so it’s not just about a hidden object game anymore, it’s about a hidden object/adventure game and combining those two elements into one kind of genre, a new genre. And I think we’re kind of going that route with our new match three game coming out, it’s not just a match three, it’s really got a deep story, a whole new interactive component to it where you’re getting more – not necessarily game play because it’s not really a game, it’s just a deeper experience. And I think that’s where the industry is going, because people are getting more sophisticated, and more people want more from that type of game. I mean those types of games will stay, and you’ll probably see them on our site as flash games, where it’s a quicker, less immersive experience. But for downloading a whole game, it needs to be a really deep, rich, innovative, immersive experience.

GA – Do you see more a separation with that, where people are wanting a more deep, investing experience, but also others want to play a Facebook app that’s only a minute long?
Bo - Yeah, I think it’s not necessarily two different options. I think it’s probably the same people, just playing in different situations. I think (people) play Bejeweled Twist for five minutes at work, but I don’t have time to get into this type of game until I get home, when it’s hidden object time and I can sit down for an hour and just play. And I think that’s pretty common in the industry. We’re really familiar with the five minutes of fun model because of our history in mobile and our history in iPhone. Those devices aren’t built for hours of game play.

GA – So do you see not necessarily the audience going that way, but the games themselves, where there isn’t going to be really that middle of the road type of game anymore?
Bo – From our standpoint, we want to make content that appeals to everyone, but I’m not that sure what that middle of the road type game is, maybe a half an hour or play. I think maybe the flash version of Burger Time would kind of fill that sort of space.

Maybe the evolution of the flash games will fill in that void while the downloadable content becomes more involved. I look forward to seeing what is to come for and from Namco Networks. The two games I got a sneak peek of intrigued me.

Popularity: 1% [?]