Bandai Namco to develop two new franchises after acquiring minority stake in Limbic Entertainment

Bandai Namco’s European branch, Bandai Namco Entertainment Europe (BNEE), has acquired a minority stake in the German game development studio Limbic Entertainment. The Company will now begin working with the Limbic in order to develop two brand new franchises under the BNEE name.

“The seasoned teams [at Limbic] have shown their talents in the past on the various titles they have been working on, with Tropico 6 being their latest success,” stated Arnaud Muller, chief operating officer of BNEE. Alongside Tropico 6, Limbic Entertainment has also worked to develop Memories of Mars and the Heros of Might and Magic series.

The minority stake in Limbic is part of BNEE’s plan to increase the number of intellectual properties tied to the branch. BNEE already has popular titles such as Guilty Gear Strive and Little Nightmares under its belt, and it looks to be expanding even more. It is unknown what types of games will be announced by the company once these two franchises begin development.

It may be possible that the company will delve into a heavy focus on augmented and virtual reality titles — BNEE recently acquired Reflector Entertainment, which has an in-house AR/VR development studio. Based on this acquisition history, however, it would not be a surprise to see if even more studios end up under the BNEE umbrella soon.