Namco Hometek

Not to be confused for Namco Limited or Bandai Namco Entertainment. For other uses of Namco, see Namco (disambiguation).

Namco Hometek Inc. (also known under the name Namco: The Game Creator in advertising and packaging) was an American subsidiary of Namco based in Santa Clara, California. The company was founded in 1990, and released Pac-Man titles for home video game consoles. The company ceased much of its operations towards the mid-2000s, and has been superseded by Bandai Namco Entertainment America.

History

Established in 1990 as a branch of Namco-America, Namco Hometek distributed games for the home console market, developing original titles alongside localizing games released by Namco in Japan. One of Namco Hometek's first releases was a port of Pac-Man for the Game Boy, originally released in Japan under the "Namcot" label. Namco Hometek would later publish further ports of Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man for other home consoles at the time.

While Namco Hometek mainly published preexisting titles initially, the company also held internal game development. The ill-fated Pac-Man Ghost Zone was developed at Namco Hometek; this game was later reworked into Pac-Man World for the PlayStation, beginning the successful "World" sub-series. Namco Hometek would later produce Ms. Pac-Man Maze Madness and Pac-Man World 2. Namco Hometek faced company restructuring (by request of Namco of Japan) in early 2003; potentially due to this, Namco Hometek ceased in-house development of original titles around this time.

In addition, Namco Hometek would hire other developers to produce Pac-Man titles for the North American market. The most common developer was Mass Media - who produced additional ports of Ms. Pac-Man Maze Madness, the original game Pac-Man Fever, and compilation releases such as Pac-Man Collection. Namco Hometek hired DSI Games to produce several Pac-Man releases for the Game Boy Advance, which were further outsourced to other developers; for unknown reasons, DSI distributed these releases themselves, while still crediting Namco Hometek as the "publisher".

In 2005, Namco announced plans to merge with Bandai, forming Bandai Namco Holdings. Namco Hometek was heavily affected by Bandai Namco's formation; resulting in many remaining outsourced projects, including Pac-Man World 3, either being rushed to completion or fully canceled in order to comply with the merge. In January 2006, Namco Hometek was merged with Bandai Games to form Namco Bandai Games America (now known as Bandai Namco Entertainment America); some parts of the company would be merged with Namco Networks America, a then-newly formed subsidiary that focused on mobile phone software.

Following the Bandai Namco merge, almost all of BNEA's output were games produced by the Japanese division (though some were designed for the U.S. market). Pac-Man World Rally and Snoopy vs. the Red Baron, two games produced by Smart Bomb Interactive, were the final two Namco Hometek-commissioned games to release, both of which launched under the Bandai Namco brand. Namco Hometek's Santa Clara offices were still the main BNEA address up until the early 2010s; the company eventually relocated in 2021.

Pac-Man releases

Developed games

• Pac-Man World (1999)
• Ms. Pac-Man Maze Madness (2000)
• Pac-Man World 2 (2002)

Published games

• Pac-Man (1990-1999) - Game Boy, Game Boy Color (Special Color Edition), Game Gear, and NES (1993, non-Tengen) versions
• Ms. Pac-Man (1993-1999) - Game Boy, Game Boy Color (Special Color Edition), Game Gear, and NES (1993, non-Tengen) versions, exclusively published by Namco Hometek
• Pac-Attack (1993) - Localized version of Namco's Cosmo Gang the Puzzle
• Pac-Man 2: The New Adventures (1994)
• Pac-In-Time (1995) - Localized version of Mindscape's Fury of the Furries
• Namco Museum Vol. 1 (1995)
• Namco Museum Vol. 2 (1996)
• Namco Museum Vol. 3 (1997)
• Namco Museum Vol. 4 (1997)
• Namco Museum Vol. 5 (1997)
• Namco Museum 64 (1999) - Nintendo 64
• Namco Museum (2000) - Sega Dreamcast
• Namco Museum (2001) - Game Boy Advance
• Pac-Man Collection (2001)
• Namco Museum (2001) - PlayStation 2, Nintendo GameCube, Xbox
• Pac-Man Fever (2002)
• Pac-Man Vs. (2003)
• Pac-Pix (2004)
• Pac 'N Roll (2005)
• Pac-Man Pinball Advance (2005)
• Namco Museum 50th Anniversary (2005)
• Namco Museum Battle Collection (2005)
• Pac-Man World 3 (2005)
• Pac-Man World Rally (2006) - commissioned by Namco Hometek in 2004, but did not release until after the Namco-Bandai merger in 2006.

Cancelled games

• Pac-Man Ghost Zone (1996-1997, internally developed)
• Super Pac-Man Pinball (2005, development outsourced)
• Ms. Pac-Man Maze Madness 2 (2005-2006, development outsourced)