MARCH 18, 2009 • Namco Bandai continued to increase its ownership stake in D3Publisher – up to 95% from 70%. Namco Bandai announced in February the intention to acquire 100% of D3Publisher, plus its European and North American operations, to be run as a wholly owned subsidiary. In addition to its video game publishing business, D3Publisher was also an attractive proposition for its toy and merchandising business.

Impact: D3 is a publisher focused on what they call “Simple” games.  In other words, they focus on the type of products that could do well on Nintendo platforms.  Companies that can focus on basic low cost games now seem in high demand.