Bandai Entertainment to purchase Bandai Visual USA

[SpaceDrake]

http://www.bandainamco.co.jp/release...es/3/44660.pdf

What does this say, precisely? Is it what I think it is, a notice that Bandai Entertainment is purchasing Bandai Visual USA?

Because if so, holy crap.

[LiberLibri]

Originally Posted by SpaceDrake

What does this say, precisely? Is it what I think it is, a notice that Bandai Entertainment is purchasing Bandai Visual USA?

There is a specific thread for the purpose.

And the answer is, yes. They are going to liquidate Bandai Visual USA to integrate its business into Bandai Entertainment by September.

By the way, I was amused to know Bandai Visual USA has only two employees while its nominal sales per annum is 1151 thousands USD. Substantially a paper company, I imagine.

[SpaceDrake]

Apologies then.

Also, WOOOOOOOOOOOOO. This means nothing but good things.

[Ash Falls Town]

Originally Posted by LiberLibri

There is a specific thread for the purpose.

I went to that thread and it was a translation thread. I don't know how that has anything to do with Bandai Entertainment purchasing BVUSA so I'll post this here.

Anyway being a Haruka and a dub fan I find the news annoying. Why couldn't this of happened before they started releasing Haruka sub only?
Meh I'm in a grouchy mood.
Anyway I don't really have anything more to say on the subject.

[DragoonKain3]

C'mon, True Tears having a dub!

[SpaceDrake]

As much as I hate to rain on parades, I suspect the purchase of BVUSA means that 'marginal' titles might get trimmed. Haruka and True Tears never made too huge a splash; they might be released sub-only, but hopefully they'll use the new, 'cheap subs' philosophy BEI and a few others are taking.

Admittedly what I'm looking forward to is an English dub release of the Aim for the Top shows at a decent price point.

[rg4619]

There's also no guarantee that Bandai Entertainment will distribute True Tears. Since they're in charge of releases now, their staff will surely evaluate the marketability of each license instead of blindly distributing everything they inherit.

Currently, the plan is to continue pursuing what Bandai Visual aimed for (simultaneous North American and Japanese launches, products made in Japan, probably Blu-Ray format given BVUSA's last announcement), so I'd expect future releases to remain relatively expensive, at least in the short term. With the Blu-Ray format, they'll try to push these as premium titles.

Admittedly what I'm looking forward to is an English dub release of the Aim for the Top shows at a decent price point.

I don't expect much change where simultanous Blu-Ray launches are concerned. The big question is whether BEI intends to re-announce DVD releases for True Tears, sola, or Shigofumi (or whether they'll ever repackage older BVUSA releases into more affordable sets. I suspect that Bandai Visual in Japan still has much say on what happens to their properties).

Edit: Bear in mind that this isn't really a purchase. The parent company, Bandai Namco, simply decided to increase efficiency by rolling Bandai Visual USA into Bandai Entertainment. There's little need to have two publishing subsidiaries kicking around, especially when one is much less established (BV USA also had many issues with distribution, which shouldn't be an issue now that BEI is in charge).

[relentlessflame]

Originally Posted by rg4619

Edit: Bear in mind that this isn't really a purchase. The parent company, Bandai Namco, simply decided to increase efficiency by rolling Bandai Visual USA into Bandai Entertainment. There's little need to have two publishing subsidiaries kicking around, especially when one is much less established (BV USA also had many issues with distribution, which shouldn't be an issue now that BEI is in charge).

Well, yeah, it's sort of a weird merger, because the two were sort of like "cousin companies" as opposed to "sister companies". IIRC, Bandai Entertainment is a direct subsidiary of Bandai Namco Holdings, while Bandai Visual USA was wholly-owned by Bandai Visual Japan (which is in turn owned by Bandai Namco Holdings). So it's like, if Bandai Visual USA wanted access to a Bandai Visual show, well, they are Bandai Visual. But if Bandai Entertainment wanted access to a Bandai Visual show, it had to go through due process because each subsidiary has their own bottom line to worry about. And this despite the fact that, ultimately, they're all still "Bandai". So it was very confusing to begin with, and this consolidation isn't that unforeseen in some senses, but only because the board finally stepped in and must have basically said "You, Division A, must work with Division B". Hopefully this signifies the beginning of even closer relations between Bandai Visual and Bandai Entertainment, because I really think some of the principles Bandai Visual was working towards (reducing the lag time, simultaneous global releases, and so on) are really important for the industry going forward.