License, developer and publisher confusion and Atari's role

[dragonballzgtfighter]

I'm a little confused because everytime a DBZ game is made a few companies are involved and get a pay check.

List of companies involved.
Toei Animation
Pony Canyon
FUNimation Entertainment
Namco Bandai
Spike
Dimps
Atari

My view is Namco Bandai owns the rights to make the games and they can ask Spike or Dimps to make them if they don't want to do it themselves.

In Japan Namco Bandai is always the Publisher and if they wanted they could be the developer.

In US Atari is the Publisher. Would it be easier if Namco Bandai was the Publisher globally? This would mean there would only be one publisher for the game instead of two.

What is the role of each company?

[Ex-Dubbie369]

I'm pretty sure that Pony Canyon doesn't get anything when it comes to the games, as they are basically only associated with the DBoxes and nothing else.

And to be honest, I have no friggin clue as to why Namco Bandai (or is it the other way around? ) Isn't the distributor here.

As for everything else, I'm not sure who does what except that Spike and Dimps makes the games.

[VegettoEX]

Toei Animation is the animation company responsible for the creation of the TV series (and movies, OVAs, etc.) based on DragonBall. They are not inherently involved in the creation of video games, except that their original works (and now-a-days voice casts and such) are actually integrated into these games. They don't HAVE to be involved, though; for example, I don't think Toei had anything to do with either Jump Super Stars or Jump Ultimate Stars, which were exclusively based around manga versions of series (and so therefore Shonen Jump was the company involved with licensing).

Namco (now "Namco-Bandai" since their merger in September 2005) is the sole license-holder for the production of DragonBall games in Japan, and thus their adaptations and creations abroad. I don't think anyone knows a whole lot about this deal, since Japanese businesses tend to keep a lot of this information to themselves, and even when public companies are involved, it's just not as easy to dig things up as it is in the US.

Pony Canyon is just a media distribution company. As Ex-Dubbie369 said, they're involved with things like the Dragon Box sets and DVD releases. Nothing to do with the DBZ video games, as far as I can tell. They are involved with video games in some capacity, but I don't think DBZ is a part of that (since it's all Namco).

Going back to Namco, they can either produce things in-house or have them developed elsewhere, and then publish those final products. Banpresto is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Bandai (where they got their name, though they existed under a different name before the acquisition). Banpresto has developed DBZ games (for example, Bukuu Tougeki / Supersonic Warriors on GBA). Since this was produced by a company within Bandai, this would be considered something produced in-house directly by Bandai.

We then have games like the Budokai and Sparking! series, which were not actually developed in-house by Bandai, but rather Dimps and Spike, respectively. Dimps and Spike create games for other companies, who then take the final products and actually handle the publishing and distribution. For an American equivalent, think of Halo; it's developed by Bungie, but published by Microsoft.

So far, that's all still been in Japan. Let's bring it over to the US and talk about Atari and FUNimation.

As you probably know, FUNimation is the American license holder for the DragonBall franchise (at least in terms of the animation and various other items; it gets a little shaky when you bring the manga into the mix, but for this discussion, we'll assume FUNimation just owns it all). This means that anything that's going to come out in the USA for DBZ *has* to go through FUNimation in some capacity. So of course FUNimation wants to have some DBZ video games come out. They can't make them on their own, though. That's where Atari comes in.

Atari obtained a sub-license from FUNimation to release DBZ games here in North America (and abroad), and for an extent of time, were actually creating original games on their own under the brand's name. We don't know a whole lot about the deal prior to 2004 (when it involved Infogrames themselves), but in 2004, Atari paid FUNimation $10 million to secure the "exclusive interactive rights" to the franchise through January 2010.

As I mentioned, this could involve either releasing pre-existing games, or even creating them on their own. Examples of pre-existing games would be things like Supersonic Warriors, the Budokai series (despite those first three games coming out in the US before Japan, they were developed in Japan), etc. Examples of games created in-house would be the Legacy of Goku series, Taiketsu, etc. Even then, Atari wasn't themselves creating these games. Similar to Bandai/Banpresto, Atari would sub-contract development studios like WebFoot to actually create the games, and would then publish them under the Atari name.

Atari has gone through a lot of shenanigans lately (with their full re-acquisition by Infogrames being the most recent), but they stopped producing original DB games back in August 2005 with DragonBall GT: Transformation on GBA.

So why doesn't Namco just distribute the games here, themselves? Well, they did. Twice. Back in 1986, they brought over the first DB Famicom game as Dragon Power. Since this was prior to FUNimation's very existence, none of that mess had to get involved, so it makes a lot of sense. Later on in 1997 we finally got another DB game in the form of DragonBall GT: Final Bout, which Bandai also released on their own. I don't remember off-hand, but I don't think there was a single bit of FUNimation-branding on that game (the voices were all original, as we know), so it wouldn't surprise me if Bandai just went right over their head and released the game on their own without any consideration from them what-so-ever.

FUNimation started getting some leverage around 1999, so it again wouldn't surprise me if that's when the talks between them and Namco started happening, and they brought in Infogrames/Atari.

Random note, and I'd have to dig up the exact figure and source, but I remember seeing something in a financial report that said a full HALF OF THE PROFIT made on the DB games by Atari/FUNimation gets sent right back over to Japan. It's basically free money for them.

I think that covers most of it. Anything not clear? Anything I missed?

EDIT: Just realized that the entire time I've been saying "Namco", I meant to type "Bandai".

[dragonballzgtfighter]

Thank you VegettoEX.

I'm still a little confused with the whole Atari thing.

I know that no matter who is developing the DBZ game Namco-Bandai is the publisher in Japan.

Imagine if you will as of 2009 Infogrames/Atari did not exist, would Namco-Bandai be allowed to publish DBZ games outside of Japan? If allowed I guess Namco-Bandai will have to work directly with Funimation. (Thus leaving out the middle man Infogrames/Atari) Also a little difficult as Funimation and Namco-Bandai (Language and location.)

[SSj_Rambo]

Imagine if you will as of 2009 Infogrames/Atari did not exist, would Namco-Bandai be allowed to publish DBZ games outside of Japan? If allowed I guess Namco-Bandai will have to work directly with Funimation. (Thus leaving out the middle man Infogrames/Atari)

There's a good chance that that might happen some day (from what I've read), since Atari has been having huge financial problems and troubles making money period.

[VegettoEX]

There's a good chance that that might happen some day (from what I've read), since Atari has been having huge financial problems and troubles making money period.

They're actually doing OK, now (even profitable, I think...?) having been taken back into the fold that is Infogrames.

Doesn't mean there won't be some sort of re-negotiation that takes place in 2010, though. I could honestly see it going either way (either that FUNimation stays with Atari/Infogrames and strikes a new deal, or just goes elsewhere and gets rid of all the baggage).