The European arm of Japanese games and entertainment group Bandai Namco, with UK operations covering games publishing and amusements, including a Camden store.
Bandai Namco's European arm publishes and distributes video games in more than 20 countries, including a UK office. It is known for franchises such as Tekken, Pac-Man, Dark Souls and Elden Ring, and it also helps other studios, such as CD Projekt RED, Electronic Arts and Outright Games, distribute their games digitally and physically.
The one-line description we found is "Helping gaming industry partners publish and distribute their content". We did not find a longer mission statement for the European company. Its own studios include Reflector Entertainment (bought 2020), Limbic Entertainment (majority stake 2022) and games such as Little Nightmares and Park Beyond.
The UK appears in a list of its offices alongside Germany, Sweden, France, Spain, Italy, Greece and Australia, and the company is also described as the European headquarters for Bandai Namco Holdings. A separate UK arm, Bandai Namco Amusement Europe, runs amusement and entertainment venues. Its managing director John McKenzie announced the first Bandai Namco Cross Store outside Japan in Camden Market, London, in 2023. It has six shops, four of them UK firsts (Banpresto, Ichibankuji, MegaHouse and Sun-Star Stationery), plus an arcade and event space. Camden was chosen for its "eclectic mix of cultural products and art".
McKenzie said the idea combines location-based entertainment experience with growing demand for Japanese characters and concepts, and celebrates physical retail. The pages we read name only a few people and say little about office culture, so there is not much published about day-to-day working life.
The mix of publishing, sales, marketing, retail and venue roles shows how many kinds of job exist around games beyond making them. A trade piece noted a London move for the amusement business; we could not read its details. Bandai Namco Amusement Europe's Camden site is meant to feel like a community entertainment event rather than a standard shop. Visitors can see and touch Japanese character collectibles, card games and figures, and the Gashapon Bandai and ONE PIECE CARD GAME shops sit alongside the arcade. For a student, this shows that a games group offers careers in retail, events and customer experience as well as in development and publishing.
Website: www.bandainamcoent.eu
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