Changes effective April 1
©Bandai Namco Entertainment Inc.
Bandai Namco Holdings announced on Wednesday it will enter a company restructuring and enact personnel changes at the executive/departmental head level across its various groups, including Bandai Namco Holdings, Bandai (the toy and hobby business unit), Bandai Namco Entertainment (BNE, the digital business unit), Bandai Namco Filmworks (BNFW, the video and music business unit), and Bandai Namco Experience (BNEX, the amusement business unit), effective April 1.
Notable changes include:
- Bandai: Osamu Sarudate as the new executive officer of the card business division, previously in the Bandai Namco Entertainment NE production department unit 1
- Bandai Namco Filmworks: Koji Tezuka as the new executive officer, head of the Gundam division, previously the card business division’s general manager and an executive officer
- Bandai Namco Experience: Yuzuke Minagawa as the new executive officer of the CX park business division, previously of the business development division and the facility development division
A number of departments and divisions have also been renamed/reorganized internally, such as renaming BNE’s AE division’s “765 Production” to “IP & Contents Production,” to promote worldwide expansion.
Bandai Namco Holdings and Sony Group Corporation signed a strategic business alliance agreement in July. Sony also agreed to acquire 16 million Bandai Namco shares held by existing shareholders for approximately 68 billion yen (about US$464.5 million), making Sony a shareholder holding approximately 2.5% of the total issued shares of Bandai Namco.
Earlier in May, Sony Group Corporation and Bandai Namco Holdings jointly invested 10 billion yen (about US$68.3 million) in Tokyo-based Web3 and AI company Gaudiy, to begin a strategic entertainment and technology partnership.
Nintendo announced in November it has entered into a share transfer agreement with Bandai Namco Studios in order to acquire the latter’s Singapore-based subsidiary support studio Bandai Namco Studios Singapore. The studio will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Nintendo, and thus renamed to Nintendo Studios Singapore.
Nintendo will acquire 80% of the studio’s shares on April 1, 2026, and will acquire the remaining shares sometime after that, “once the subsidiary’s operations have stabilized.”
Sources: Bandai Namco Holdings (link 2), Gamebiz
Disclosure: Bandai Namco Filmworks Inc. (Sunrise) is a non-controlling, minority shareholder in Anime News Network Inc.
