Bandai Namco Forge Digitals

Bandai Namco Forge Digitals Inc., formerly known as B.B. Studio Co., Ltd., is a Japanese video game development company. The company is a result of a merger between BEC[ja] and Banpresoft by their parent company, Bandai Namco Entertainment.

History

BEC Co., Ltd.(株式会社ベック, Kabushiki-gaisha Bekku), short for Bandai Entertainment Company, was a joint venture by Bandai and Human for video game development. They were best known for developing licensed video games for Bandai including Digimon, Dragon Ball Z and Mobile Suit Gundam.

Bandai eventually took full control of BEC, after Human went bankrupt in 2000, and once Bandai and Namco merged to create Bandai Namco Holdings, BEC became a video game development subsidiary for the merged company.

Banpre Kikaku Co., Ltd.(株式会社バンプレ企画, Kabushiki-gaisha Banpure Kikaku) was a subsidiary of Banpresto that developed video games. Its name was changed to Banpresoft Co., Ltd.(株式会社バンプレソフト, Kabushiki-gaisha Banpuresofuto) in March 1997.

In April 1998, Banpresoft launched its internal development division, leading to the production of titles such as Super Robot Wars Alpha and subsequent entries in the Super Robot Wars series. The company continued to expand, increasing its capital to 200 million yen in June 2002 and relocating to Komagata, Taito-ku, Tokyo in July 2005.

By 2007, Banpresoft restructured its development teams, transferring non-Super Robot Wars projects (Summon Night, Ar tonelico, etc.) to Banpresto’s Consumer Division. In May 2007, the company moved to Higashi-Shinagawa, Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo, inside the Bandai Namco Miraiken building.[citation needed]

In May 2008, Banpresoft became a wholly owned subsidiary of Bandai Namco Games.

On April 1, 2011, Bandai Namco merged BEC with Banpresoft in order to streamline and unify the Bandai gaming subsidiaries under one division, whilst the Banpresto brand was re-established as a toy company as part of Bandai Namco's toys and hobby business. B.B. Studio continued to use the Banpresto name on its products until February 2014, when it was decided that all Bandai Namco video games going forward would only carry the Bandai Namco name.

In July 2024, B.B. Studio, which was in the past a subsidiary of parent company Bandai Namco Entertainment became a direct subsidiary of Bandai Namco Studios.

On March 3, 2025, Bandai Namco announced the change of name from B.B. Studio to Bandai Namco Forge Digitals.

List of games

Notes

External links

• (in Japanese)