In recent months the videogames industry has seen numerous changes in position within its publishing and development communities. Recent rumours suggesting THQ’s demise may well have been greatly exaggerated, though the closure of Free Radical Design proved to be an unfortunate truth. Square Enix are reportedly pursuing Eidos and there has been no secret of the on-going Electronic Arts take-over bid for Take Two Interactive. Today, however, Electronic Theatre has received word on the latest of such rumours to have reached the surface, a complete purchase of D3Publisher, responsible for this year’s promising release Eat Lead: The Return of Matt Hazard.

            Electronic Theatre contacted D3 Publisher late last night to try and confirm these rumours, one way or another, and received the following statement in response first thing this morning:

“Bandai Namco Games, owned by Bandai Namco Holding Inc, has announced plans to acquire 100% of D3, Inc., and its subsidiaries D3Publisher of America and D3Publisher of Europe as well as D3PA's subsidiary development studio, Vicious Cycle. D3Publisher operations will remain unchanged at this time. Development of our current and unannounced titles is ongoing and will move forward as planned.  D3Publisher is thrilled to join forces with Bandai Namco Games to further strengthen their position in the US and European marketplaces and continue to make quality games that gamers will enjoy.”

So how exactly will this news affect the average gamer? Possibly not very much. Each Bandai Namco and D3Publishers titles remain unaffected, as does their working practice. With the additional strength of the Bandai Namco brand, D3Publishers’ titles may receive more exposure in European mainstream press than they had been benefit to previously, but with franchises such as Onechanbara, Puzzle Quest and the aforementioned Eat Lead under their control, a question could be raised as to exactly how long this would’ve taken D3Publisher under their own steam.

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