Bandai - A Terrible Company that Nobody Talks About

[@ZeeengMicro]

>Make a new figure/mokit/game line >Shit sells well >Release the next batch as limited version to increase profit >People stop buying >Thinking people are tired of the new line and completely scrap the whole thing >Repeat

[@ShinKatto]

Kyoukai senki is still absolutely alive despite this

[@gellog0530]

I hate p bandai so much alot of new gunpla release are just p bandai they put the phantom in p bandai they put the strike dagger in pbandai like wtf

[@pheonix_soldier]

@@gellog0530 look no further than the real grade impulse. Sure make the type 2 which is just a dark color variant a regular release but make the blast and sword impulse p bandai. This company causes me emotional damage

[@t3dweipin193]

@@ShinKatto Store starts clearing them out by selling every Kyokai Senki kit at 100 yen be like:

[@Skroopy]

​@@pheonix_soldierman, locking the Impulse variants behind P-Bandai was so dumb. I'm confident those would sell well enough as a regular release.

[@dsyokeshi]

"To love Digimon is to love pain." I feel that on a personal level

[@mattmaddogwheaton4724]

I'll go one better..... "To love Gundam (well ANY mecha anime that isn't Evangelion) is to love pain and suffering."

[@kacklina]

Digimon and the tales series know how to give more pain ever needed to their fans.

[@ZX-Gear]

So much pain,Peko.

[@temoonchong3522]

I know, because I play vital bracelet, see the way they handle their app... Haiz...

[@HenshinFanatic]

@@kacklina Still salty over Tales of Hearts (DS version) being JP only and them only releasing the Vita remake internationally.

[@mothman7430]

Bandai the second a live service game doesn’t make a bajillion dollars in the first week: “death”

[@Samsapopin]

And that's probably what's going to happen when SAO: Fractured Daydream releases due to them not really promoting it & it's probably releasing around the same time Sparking Zero releases. A real shame because the new SAO game looks more promising than most of the SAO games.

[@user-AADZ]

I hate capitalism

[@Shy_Abi]

Unless the director is named "Katsuhiro Harada"

[@nickkorkodylas5005]

@@user-AADZ Move to Venezuela.

[@skeletonjanitor]

@@user-AADZ say goodbye to all the small indie game makers then lol. The problem here is much more than just “capitalism le bad”.

[@stargateMimhi]

I work in a comic store in Canada, and we have to fight and struggle to even get Bandai products in stock! They ignore you, lie to you about availability, refuse service after attempting to place orders... Just a terrible company.

[@sonicanvaspost6867]

Let's not forget that most of their merch are like...either region-locked or if they did a massive scale, they're not in a good quality most of the time You're considered a lucky man to even get an acrylic stand of a character that isn't the one they actively pushed in the franchise

[@erugurara8235]

hwo does it work to get they lines?, aret companies sure to bring merchandise to loyarl stores?, to keep a the same places with content to sell to others?.

[@stargateMimhi]

@@erugurara8235 You would think so. But nope, Bandai doesn't want to ship outside of Japan and continental US anymore.

[@erugurara8235]

@@stargateMimhi i cant even fathom that from a companie that holds the biggest ips of japan, is rather ludicorus some may say.

[@timothydarden6133]

The "It's my IP to sit on and do nothing with" meme from Smiling Friends would be a PERFECT slogan for Bandai.

[@CloakofAuron]

Xenosaga, Klonoa, et al

[@darkjackl999]

Ah the Harmony Gold approach

[@SlapstickGenius23]

@@darkjackl999 Harmony Gold is indeed more infamous than even CrunchyRoll and Funimation combined. Its heinousness also made 4Kids look like a wimp.

[@gigabowser64]

is it a better slogan for them or sony?

[@timothydarden6133]

@@gigabowser64 The recent release of Astro Bot lets Sony off the hook.

[@TangentLine]

Meanwhile the Gundam fanbase having to deal with real-life DLCs for Gunpla for years and hoping every release isn't p-bandai

[@rayvenkman2087]

Or trying to get many of the shows on Blu-Ray and wondering about the future of the line if you’re an American buyer.

[@remismywaifu8482]

Also battle operations 2

[@weebcraft6829]

I pray for Breaker 4's success. The team seems to know what they're doing. But seeing the limited roster and price, Bandai is highly likely to just shut the game down after launch without DLC support because they're fucking Bandai

[@ProtoAlpha]

Out of all of the companies on earth I sincerely desire for Bandai to have a mass layoff of their leadership in all branches. Their treatment of the Gundan franchise and worse, consumer criticism is something that should not be tolerated!

[@titan133760]

Or SH Monsterarts collectors having to deal with Tamashii Nations releasing overpriced SH Monsterarts figures with minimal accesories and hit-or-miss figure quality

[@AgentOracle]

Every Elden Ring player knows the horror of BanDai Namco. >Start game. >FLASHBANG

[@EnergyBurst2]

I haven't checked if it's actually true yet now that it's out, but apparently with the release of the DLC that is being fixed, so supposedly no more Bandai Flashbang.

[@Destro517]

Yep no more flashbang can confirm finally my eyes are safe​@EnergyBurst2

[@Dx_Hearted]

​@@Destro517the only thing change in the land between is somehow redmane castle having an entire soldier protecting it before i do the festival. How that happen

[@alephkasai9384]

@@Dx_Hearted During the festival redmane castle is empty but if you go there before it happens there are guards around the entire place

[@Dx_Hearted]

@@alephkasai9384 oh good for me bc i already take everything from there except the legendary weapon

[@zeroanimation3956]

Bandai didn't promote their product properly in the west also Bandai, "The West hates Japanese products so we will limit them"

[@user-AADZ]

I hate capitalism

[@magnusm4]

That's how I feel about finding a practice position at a tech company or getting into an education subject. They don't actively promote or reach out to anyone interested and expect me to constantly do all the work and if I slip up then they forget it all together. Take some fucking responsibility!

[@tobubiify]

Basically japanese mindset. They made a lot of products catered for western audience.. yet they refuse to release it globally.. and they confuse why western people refuse to buy their product. Why? I don't understand that mindset.

[@GWT1m0]

​@@tobubiifyExcept they almost never make for a global audience. The only one I can think of is the PlayStation brand. They always prioritise the home market.

[@どくたるいじぢん]

I hate xenophobia. This trope has ruined social, economy and politics around the world

[@janaekelis]

so many companies love to >release thing >dont market it well >it doesnt make 12 kajillion bazillion dollars 20 minutes after release "i guess everyone hates it we should never make it again"

[@JPOG7TV]

Bandai reminds us that not every evil company is American.

[@Hypnacio]

Konami says hi

[@draconk]

After all Ubisoft is french

[@WanderinGhost]

@@Hypnacio they just care about their gambling machines now

[@frontrowruby6725]

Nintendo is another example

[@ExtremeWreck]

King, the infamous company behind Candy Crush, is part-British part-Maltese

[@YuushaBR]

Being a .hack//, Tales of, Ace Combat, Digimon, Soul Calibur, Super Robot Taisen, Ridge Racer, Klonoa, Xenosaga, Little Tail, Time Crisis, Legend of Valkyrie, Gundam and a Splatterhouse fan, is to live in eternal pain.

[@fillerbunnyninjashark271]

Those are namco series long before bandai was involved

[@dragocrafterr8286]

Hopefully xenosaga gets some stuff after uh recent monolith soft related events 🙏

[@your-mom89]

I don't even think bandai remember about ace combat

[@william3791]

wait a second...xenosaga is squaresoft/enix IP not bamco right??

[@brandonalex7233]

@@william3791Xenogears is from Square, Xenosaga is owned by Bandai Namco. On the sidenote, Xenoblade is owned by Nintendo. Though all of them are by the same developer, Monolithsoft

[@dreamworldtony]

Now I understand why AliExpress is absolutely filled with fake Onepiece cards...

[@tiredspudguy6835]

the one pieeeeece-

[@cbbblue8348]

@@tiredspudguy6835 is not realllllllll

[@jprobertson-e1j]

Jesus, I couldn't even properly buy a black lagoon t shirt at their checkout!

[@LuigianoMariano]

Imagine where Digimon would be right now if its full potential wasn't being held back by Bandai...

[@zoruasnivy]

The bad mobile app they made for the new Vital Bracelet along with the fact that my anniversary one is faulty ended up killing my interest in it entirely. It could have been so much better.

[@somechupacabrawithinternet8866]

and if it's fanbase was not brain damaged

[@turkey4802]

@@somechupacabrawithinternet8866wait what do you mean by this

[@StellaEFZ]

As someone who plays the card game and current release got delayed (again), I feel this...

[@KiraSlith]

They've only remixed the entire franchise into cool new spins only to then abandon them a dozen times times. The Hacker Monster direction they took with Cyber Sleuth alone would make an amazing basis for an entire franchise on it's own.

[@zeeer0rooo]

People say Nintendo and Sony are allergic to money and hate their own fans when in actuality it’s Bandai.

[@oblisk7778]

I mean... they are. It's just Bandai is allergic to money, hates their fans, is blind and can't do anything right to save their hind... All at once.

[@CHEFPKR]

I have worked with Bandai directly and I have friends in the company. Let me say, even their staff feel the same. There is something going on at the top of Bandai that is just...bad. I feel bad for the people who are really passionate about the IP's Bandai have. Their hands are tied in so many ways and I can see the frustration on their faces.

[@timothydarden6133]

What's going on at the top of Bandai can be narrowed down to one word; favoritism. Favoritism for their domestic market, favoritism for their oh-so-precious licenses, and favoritism for making the safest feasible moves.

[@hinrei1986]

Ya, and it's not 2 sides but 4 in the board. What a joke.

[@pablocasas5906]

Well, it seems that things at Bandai Namco, at least their video game side, got worse. There was a recent Bloomberg article that claims that BN is cutting their workforce due to lackluster demand. The article also says that BN has canceled some Naruto and One Piece games and they even stopped the development of a game commissioned by Nintendo

[@oblisk7778]

@@timothydarden6133 The funny thing is... the moves they make aren't safe at all lmao. Bandai is just blind.

[@FireFury190]

As a Kamen Rider, Super Sentai, and Ultraman fan I know all too well the scumminess of Bandai and their obsession with Pbandai.

[@amirrashidan3047]

Bandai was the reason why Decker is horrible, because they forcefully shove the release of the gun which the bad guy uses to pilot that blue robot. Source: Figure-Oh

[@Penbin123]

Me watching my favorite forms of a Rider season either being P.B or not existing as S.H.F while I can only play with the red of each sentai season.

[@jarodnole4618]

Tokusatau fans! Rise up! and cry 🥲

[@gtrproductions269]

Finally, atokusatsu fan that's knows our pain. We just want to buy colorful super heroes in suits!

[@sozettaslooow]

Me trying to get chemy cards:

[@RandomBlackGamer]

Sadly a lot of Japanese companies are tone deaf. They will go backwards instead of going forward. SEGA of Japan instantly comes to mind. At 1 point they were ruling the console market. But shot themselves in the foot by pumping out expesive add-ons like the SEGA CD with little to no marketing or clarification on what it was. And they went against their American branch's advise to not roll out the Saturn so soon because the Genesis was still selling well. They always found a way to overextend themselves. And now they're nothing more than a 3rd party game publisher.

[@rayvenkman2087]

Sega of Japan is particularly backwards with Sonic because they’re so Anti-Western Sonic... Yet Sonic does far better in the west and so many of the woes he’s suffered is because of them not knowing when to not get in their own way or a stubborn inability to admit they don’t know what they’re doing like the entire 2010’s Meta era of Sonic. I could be wrong but we could have gotten Sonic Mania 2 by now had they learned to just keep their mouths shut and let people who know what they’re doing do their jobs. Sonic Team by extension made some serious boneheaded calls like fooling around with a game engine for better shadow effects more than actually working on the game which is the story of Sonic Forces or splitting up the team to half to work on a Wii title (Eventually releasing as Secret Rings) at a crucial time in a period where several studios were making the leap to the PS3-Xbox 360 Gen when Sonic 2006 was being worked on. A game that needed all the manpower it required as the centrepiece of the 15th Anniversary. The fanmade remake Project-06 shows just how badly their decision backfired when fans are able to give the game the polish and bug fixing it needed. When you see how phenomenal that’s turning out for a project that’s still being worked on by one guy and a small group to assist him, it makes the decisions made for 2006 by a corporation with more manpower at their disposal even dumber in comparison. And you have the likes of IGN who loves to keep beating on that dead horse despite the fact we have absolute trash being put out now that’s fundamentally worse than an unpolished game from 2006. There’s also the whole treatment of the secondary characters and the stupid mandates involved. Sonic suffers from what I like to call stop-go momentum. Every once in a while, Sonic will get some traction and people raving; then Sega proceeds to put out something that halts the momentum. Sonic Generations did well. Then Lost World comes along. Sonic Mania received praise and people got excited for Forces. Then Forces drops. The Sonic Movie was almost dead on arrival with that awful Movie Sonic design before the big retool to make a Movie Sonic that’s good looking and less uncanny looking. Because of that, we got a sequel that did well which helped Sonic Frontiers by extension and an upcoming second sequel that everyone’s eagerly awaiting because we’re in the Year of Shadow. A lot of times when Sega of Japan is hands off from the creation process, Sonic tends to flourish best that way.

[@conradojavier7547]

​@@rayvenkman2087also SEGA is Rewritting History by NOT Adding the Freedom Fighters from SatAM in the Games, & use Hammer Girl(Amy) to Replace Princess Sally in the minds of a Sonic Fan.

[@GiordanDiodato]

actually the 32x was Sega of America though Sega Japan didn't inform them about the Saturn.

[@RandomBlackGamer]

@@conradojavier7547 to be fair that's largely due to them not wanting to deal with headache of a potential lawsuit from some sue-happy wacko. But then again they'd have the rights to those characters if they copyrighted them in the first place.

[@rayvenkman2087]

@@RandomBlackGamer They do own the rights. Just not the Archie characters the dark one created.

[@shadowspartan110]

Heres something you didn't bring up. Blue Protocol when it first launched in Japan had a deluge of foreigners interested in trying it out early, fair enough right? Thats rather common especially for games that are gonna get localized WAAAY later. Bandai however did not like this so they took it upon themselves to tunnel vision ban any foreigners they can find and keep focusing on that. How tunnel visioned were they? While they were focus firing on banning foreigners they had let rampant hacking go unchecked for months on end. People found they could not participate in playing the game because hackers were using cheats that let them kill every mob in the overworlds instantly and were not being banned. Bandai genuinely would rather let their products burn to the ground from hackers than let foreigners try out the game cause "OH MY GOD DEM FILTHY GAIJINS ARE TOUCHING OUR PURE NIPPON PRODUCT".

[@spikytoaster]

Oh my god.. I was literally just thinking about this. I was hyped for Blue Protocol for YEARS when it was first teased, I had thought it was going to be my main mmo but then years past and it took so long to release that I fell in love with another mmo for years and when it finally came out (in japan) I tried it out and liked the game but with the bans it was pretty much impossible to actually get into so I had to wait for the global release to come out which went from being delayed in 2023 to being announced to release in 2024 but even now thats uncertain because there has been no info. Everything has been handled so poorly and most people have been blaming Amazon which Im sure are a partially responsible but now after watching this video it all makes sense that Bandai themselves is mostly to blame. I have since lost interest in Blue Protocol and now I know to never again trust in Bandai and have hope for anything they put out. What a shitshow.

[@vm_duc]

it's actually because the game is shit and bandai is afraid that they will lose face in the global market if that thing ever reached the west. simple as.

[@AddyEspresso]

Holy shit dude. I think hackers are way worse than english in chat

[@dereenaldoambun9158]

No wonder their economy stagnant because of such BS mindset. 😤😤😤 Meanwhile China keeps winning and delivery promises to everyone around the globe!!!! China NO. 1!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 🇨🇳🇨🇳🇨🇳🇨🇳

[@raikohzx4323]

Part of it was probably also trying to make sure Global players stuck to the Global version Amazon was licensed for localizing and handling. Its been over a year since Blue Protocol's release, Amazon sidelined that for other shit that also horribly failed in the foreign markets, and now it's all dead silent. So Bandai Namco nuked the western presence from their dead game to quarantine them to a global release that is basically never going to happen now while ignoring the state of their own game so badly.

[@funfourstudios]

Digimon would be more prosperous if any company except Bandai were in charge of it I absolutely adore all the characters all I wish for is more accessible plushies

[@FeliDJrah]

Not to mention how much potential the franchise has.

[@majortom331]

Imagine if Kotobukiya had the merch rights. One can dream.

[@dereenaldoambun9158]

Yeah, such a wasted potential. 🥲

[@StarrNOM]

I 100% wish Digimon plushies were more readily available. In addition to the general scarcity mentioned in this video, the importing costs for just a standard size plush is ridiculous. If I’m going to spend $40+ USD on something Digimon, I’d feel more inclined to get a vpet.

[@NiSE_Rafter]

Yes! I've always found Digimon to be so charming yet the franchise kind of just gets left aside to disappear into nothingness...

[@Andy_0L]

In 2015 Bandai dubbed the game Saint Seiya Soldiers' Soul into Spanish since that's one of the most popular franchises in Latin America and everyone loved it, but then right away Bandai started whining with the distributors that it was too expensive just because they had to pay what was right for a retail product instead of a TV dub which was cheaper, so they threatened them with not dubbing any other games, not even the Dragon Ball ones, just using subtitles instead. So basically Latin America shares your sentiment about Bandai and their practices.

[@usedtissuepaper42]

> See cool Gunpla kit > Wow this is cool, I hope it’s selling for a reasonable price > It’s P-Bandai > Repeat

[@ReigoVassal]

Same. Except that now bootlegs are almost as good as the real one and cheaper, I just go that way. Especially JMS. They have good quality as good as Bandai but with 50% price.

[@User1987-n8f]

​@@ReigoVassaldon't forget about daban personally it's my favorite third party kits.

[@BigEOT3]

Being a SoulCalibur fan is suffering thanks to Bandai Namco’s stupidity

[@TheLaXandro]

At least SC fans can justify it by Tekken taking up the slot of fighting game in their portfolio. What do they have in terms of racing recently? A bunch of garbage licensed Fast n Furious games, that's about it. Ridge Racer has been dead for 15 years, and Project CARS was sold to EA who promptly shut the series down.

[@BigEOT3]

@@TheLaXandroOh yeah that’s right. They also delisted Project Cars 1 & 2.

[@Pazuzu4All]

I still hold a slight grudge for SC3 being only on PS2.

[@edgehead2695]

​@@Pazuzu4All After the smash hit 2 was (as far as I know), making 3 a PlayStation exclusive was one of the most foolish decisions ever made for Soul Calibur. Ever.

[@yoshimallow]

@@Pazuzu4All Thanks Sony

[@gigaus0]

these mfers made three mmos, and killed them in beta because they weren't making money. In BETA. They shouldn't be let near anything with an established IP.

[@irvanray1898]

lmao for real, pushing mtx in beta and they have the audacity to wonder why people stop playing

[@simpleanswer8954]

Let them near established IP? They own one of the biggest IPs in the world. Imagine how huge Gundam would be in the hands of a capable company.

[@HunterAnsorge-ok9jk]

@@simpleanswer8954 don’t need to. Other gundamesque shows are out there and they are also good.

[@HazeEmry]

There's no difference between an exhausted Digimon fan and a regular Digimon fan

[@PBandaiCANADA]

I'm glad more people are aware of how terrible bandai namco is. Being a Canadian, my country has been living in the shadows of America and their US P-bandai store since bandai for some reason shut down the Canadian P-bandai store 5 years ago and never spoke of it since. It really sucks that bandai basically ignored an entire country that is neighboring the US for reasons unknown, letting scalpers hold an unbreakable monopoly over p-bandai products here.

[@zaten-p]

As a gunpla builder in Australia, I really dont like bandai's obsession with p-bandai. P-bandai kits are really annoying to get over here (usually costing about double to triple the price as you have to use a proxy service) and the recent delegation of wfm stuff to peeb makes me so danm sad

[@chrisyoung1576]

that and the G gundam p banda stuff is super sad man

[@csat4363]

The Lfrith Jiu being P-Bandai fucking sucks dude : (

[@fantastiCkiLler92]

And everyting AOZ related is P-bandai....anything that I want to get I have to stare on my phone at 4pm to buy it as quick as possible....and usually I fail to get anything I want.....FUCC YOU

[@ots8693]

P-bandai is almost impossible to get over here in the UK except either by proxy sellers or the VERY FEW god-tier people here that sell gunpla that do stock P-bandai. Because otherwise that like 80-90 bucks Johnny Ridden MG Gelgoog 2.0 would be more 200 bucks and fuck that. Some of the kits also are just random for P-Bandai which I don't like. like the Cucuruz Doan Origin P-Bandai HG Zaku II High Mobility surface types. ALL OF THEM are P-Bandai which is just...?!

[@Josh_Quillan]

The false FOMO shit is everywhere in toys and hobby stuff these days. As a diecast car collector, Mattel is creating a gigantic scalper's secondary market with their sales practices for Hot Wheels and Matchbox; I would not be surprised if they do it just as much with other toy brands.

[@rayvenkman2087]

It’s an absolute cancer and contributes to an even more cancerous scalper market.

[@noahbossier1131]

Agreed

[@DevasiaMentalityGaming]

I feel like a lot of Bandai's problems stem from a degree of xenophobia. They are a Japan based company with a heavy "Japan first" bias, and as much as they want a slice of the global market their manufacturing capability is very limited and they don't want to lose the footing they have on their own turf just to sell to the rest of the world, so not only do they limit availability through their own p-bandai storefront they also threatened export stores and demand they don't sell gunpla directly overseas so as not to cut into their own market. They say it's to curb scalping, but the end result is they get to vet which American stores get to sell their products with no one allowed to bypass that except HobbyLink(which is more trouble than it'll ever be worth). Basically they want to have their cake and eat it too, and it's just not working. Frankly I'm waiting to see them drop out of the global market altogether, because that seems much more likely than them getting their act together outside of their own country.

[@janmarini4327]

Bandai have it's own factory here in our country. And some of their stuff that they produce on that site are not even sold here 😢

[@ShadowWolfRising]

At the very least when it comes the game industry, that might not be an option.

[@SpookyDollhouse]

You can't be xenophobic to white people, sis!

[@ANUBASS]

that's just japans racist backwards culture in a nutshell though even half japanese people born in japan are treated like jews with armbands never mind actual foreigners regardless of whether they learn the language and customs and try to intergrate so its not hard to see why they view america/european audience as nothing more than stupid foreigners to make money from everybody just presumes japan is like how it is in anime when it couldn't be further from the truth

[@joshuawiseman5629]

saying its xenophobia is ridiculous,I mean no offense but are you one of those that calls everything racist?, most complain about p bandai without even understanding what p bandai is so let me explain p bandai for you...there are model designs that are obscure or niche that would not recoupe the cost it would take to engineer new runners and pieces for an entire model but they still want to cater to hardcore fans so what they do is they reuse runners(the part that model pieces come on) and pieces from full releases that have already come out and then they will make maybe 1 or 2 new runners for the unique parts they cant reuse,it gives niche designs a chance at life without a full release that may potentially bomb or not do well commercially,any businesses end goal is to make money people act like thats an insane concept, yes p bandai is exclusive to japan and america its two biggest audiences and markets they also are printed in limited number and made to order so they dont get stuck with thousands of kits that just ended up sitting, its really not some insane evil concept, dont get me wrong bandai does plenty wrong they arent exempt but im tired of hearing people complain about p bandai when if it werent for p bandai some of these model designs would never even exist yeah it sucks cuz scalpers jack the price up but its better then no model at all

[@theftking]

Tekken is a great game but some of the decisions they make are insane. You can alt + F4 right before you lose a match and it's a no contest, robbing your opponent of their victory. It makes NO SENSE - if you leave the game, _you lose._ Every other fighting game in the world has this figured out, but not Bandai Namco! They're morons! There's no excuse - Tekken is no different from any other fighting game, _all of which penalize a disconnecting player._ Also - they withheld Heihachi from a Tekken game and are now releasing him as paid DLC. _Heihachi._ ...and Tekken fans are stoked about it! Pathetic.

[@sonicanvaspost6867]

Worse: a story expansion when we're not even reaching the end of Year 1 while other FGs gotta wait for at least the end of Season 1 to early Season 2 for that massive release. They should've at least let their players got used to the mechanics before introducing a bigger update, but they just don't let us catch a break. The fandom ends up cannibalizing itself whenever a valid criticism was addressed

[@oblisk7778]

@@sonicanvaspost6867 WORSE worse: They're trying to get even scummier by forcing people to pay for a new page because it isn't included in the Season Pass. I'll say it again: They aren't including a STAGE in the SEASON PASS. Ya'know? The thing people buy so they can get all upcoming important content for the foreseeable year in one easy package? It's honestly pathetic at this point.

[@sonicanvaspost6867]

@@oblisk7778 it gets worse from here: who tf thought separating costume packs by gender *was a good idea?!* That's just an excuse to exclude Leo again And remember that time they were review-bombed? They decided to delete some of those bad reviews on Steam and mark it as "out of topic" while they are _genuine concerns_ they need to communicate to their customer

[@KGreens_Art]

As a Pokémon fan- can you imagine if a major release like Scarlet and Violet had accidentally swapped exclusive Pokémon?! The fandom would have been calling for game freaks public execution. Digimon fans put up with some real shit.

[@UNIWarriorThomas]

Speaking as a tokusatsu, srw, mecha, magical girl fan and digimon fan, yeah this sums up so much of my frustrations with bandai

[@crd7876]

AS a toy collector that focuses on SHFiguarts, don’t forget that they make us pay them AGAIN to change ADDRESS!

[@kamenriderovant9676]

Actually they refund the money back to you for you to reuse it. In their policy, if you do it at the last minute you pay more.

[@thunderstudent]

I fell you bro.

[@arx3516]

We now know why Tomino was furious when he learned Bandai bought Sunrise.

[@pablocasas5906]

Yes, Bandai meddling has affected a lot of Sunrise's shows, even some of the ones that became hugely popular like Cowboy Bebop and Code Geass suffered a lot from Bandai's executives interference

[@user-AADZ]

He hates capitalism

[@ketchupdragon73x]

This makes me feel so sorry for Namco, as their content development division advisors and the late Masaya Nakamura were against the merger with Bandai. They felt how Bandai was (and still is) would not blend well with how Namco was-they were right, but could not continue to resist the merger due to their unfortunate financial situation being too severe to further stand against the merger.

[@Super_magi_c]

Bandai be like “fool! I didn’t shoot my self in foot! It was actually my lungs!”

[@kuailiang6312]

Bandai is the Asian EA.

[@Rat_Fบcker]

mean while Konami is Asian Ubisoft

[@obiyofi9792]

Just look at their Bamco games and your're not wrong. F2P monetization model in a +70$ games.

[@matiaspereyra9392]

​@@Rat_Fบckernot really, Konami would need to make more than 2 games to be compared to ubi, also, is Konami a smex offender company too? (I mean probably but like, that we can confirm?)

[@Darktentacle666]

Al menos,konami tiene ips originales,mientras que bandai siempre fue una empresa de juguetes,que para sacarle maximo provecho a las ips que compran,larga uno tras otro una diarrea de juegos de anime con una mediocridad increible,jamas konami del pasado se podria comparar con bandai.

[@KingKrouch]

EA was actually Square Enix's publisher for a while, so I think they're more fitting of that. Bandai Namco is more like the Activision of Japan.

[@TeoTH80]

Problem is that, Bandai don't give a shit. Love it or hate it, they have way too many insanely profitable IPs, and they can keep doing this disgusting tactics for the next 20, 30 years and never face any real consequence. Artificial scarcity doesn't help their reputation, but it sure as hell help their sales. And that's all they care about. Source: Living in a SEA country where hot P-Bandai item sells out in less than 1 second, scooped by bots deployed by scalpers.

[@leviettri3576]

Even Gundam fans and Toku fans have issues with them, like their two biggest money making franchises and they are still fumbling

[@kurisu7885]

No kidding. I want to build the Zaku II in every grade I can because it's my favorite mobile suit, but finding a Master Grade that isn't the Char one is dang near impossible.

[@conradojavier7547]

Why is KR Number 2 wearing One's Silver Gloves in my Figuarts?

[@sasuke95751]

Agreed, particular on how they handle PBandai releases and how they are making it super hard for people outside Japan to purchase Japan only PBandai releases. Its one of the rare occurrence that I the company actively prevent proxies from purchasing from them

[@GiordanDiodato]

it's because of licensing issues

[@rakadean39]

they are lucky they monopolized the gundam brand especially on toyline otherwise the other company will cruch them to pulp

[@russell5292]

As someone whos first serious Bandai/Namco game was tekken 7, now having to deal with all of the bs Bamco did to Tekken 8 makes me feel for Digimon fans on a whole nother level. I can't imagine going through this kind of IP abuse for decades😔

[@givemysundaeback]

"Oops we totally forgot to advertise (insert game here) and didn't intentionally make sure it failed guess we won't be making new ones"

[@aquapendulum]

Ace Combat and Tales fans: "You are telling me that... we are the lucky ones compared to other Bandai Namco franchises???"

[@williamnoodles203]

Somewhat... yes? As a Digimon fan and gamer I am really like reeeeeeeealy jealous of the Tales franchise because at least you guys get good video games every ones in a while 🥲

[@aquapendulum]

@@williamnoodles203 [Wipes off the tears from mobile titles that keep failing and shutting down, idle-game-like mechanics creeping in mothership titles since as far back as Graces, lack of localization for half of everything pre-2015 and legacy games not named "Symphonia" keep being neglected for modern ports/remasters necessitating ownership of every out-of-production gaming hardware ever to play everything]

[@user-fe8gx3ie5v]

@@aquapendulum A guy below you said they did similar things with Tales, in that they just turned into mobile games and other lesser-effort slop.

[@aquapendulum]

@@user-fe8gx3ie5v The fact that publishers create mobile spinoffs by itself is fine. Their purpose is to be revenue-collecting live services to fund the company's major projects, which we still get. Tales of Arise is the highest-budget game in the series to date, far from low-effort. Its idle-game-like mechanic is still troubling by itself but that trend started all the way back in Graces, and Graces was made back when the mobile boom didn't happen so that can't be attributed to the mobile gaming trend. The real failing of mobile Tales titles is that they fail to even serve the purpose of bringing in revenue for the company, so what good are they for? Nothing.

[@aquapendulum]

@@user-fe8gx3ie5v (Rays' attempt at action combat on a touchscreen is actually high-effort and commendable, but action combat on a touchscreen still inherently feels bad, and gacha economy makes the combat imbalanced anyway so the core mechanics are all invalidated by it. That's it for mobile Tales.)

[@king_soundwave]

I'm also a Gundam/Digimon fan but i think Kamen Rider was my big eye opener into how bad Bandai is from relegating stuff included in the main show to PBandai up to the very expensive faiz gear csm having such bad quality control that the battery slots were double negative an double positive

[@TheCrabbyArchives]

I got that Memorial Laser Raise Riser and it had a widespread defect with the sound parts. The difference between a company like Bandai and one like Hasbro is that Bandai actually apologized for the mistake and is sending customers who ordered said item a replacement fixed version of the electronic part for free. I imagine they did the same for the Faiz Gear. At least within Japan.

[@TheAmazingCharlieG]

I hate Bandai for forgetting about Digimon & Klonoa!

[@kayleveiga4185]

You guys remember when Bandai released Dark Souls Prepare to Die on PC completely broken, but then a few hours after the release fans made a patch to fix the major stuff that broke the game, but instead of fixing the game in the following days Bandai just proceeded to sell a broken game for 5 years on steam after delisting it and giving the buyers a generous 10% discount on the Remaster? Such a nice company.

[@Michafrar]

The merger killed most Namco’s IP’s, now it’s all just bandai anime liscences. The last few namco IP’s still being made are the rare lucky ones

[@AwesomeGamer-om4hm]

About that, Namco was literally doing the exact same thing to their own IPs even before the merge. If it wasn't Pac-Man, Tekken, Katamari, Ridge Racer, or Galaga, the IP was left in the dust. I mean, Mr. Driller was the only way Dig Dug and Baraduke came back while Dragon Buster and Valkyrie were merged into the Druaga series via console spinoffs, which in itself had the same spinoffs stuck in Japan. Mappy, Splatterhouse, and Klonoa were just lucky to be recognized enough to get some sequels worldwide.

[@Michafrar]

@@AwesomeGamer-om4hm true, you got a point there! That makes it even sadder : (

[@AwesomeGamer-om4hm]

@@Michafrar Exactly. People gas up pre-merge Namco, but when you see how most other IPs have their sequels and spinoffs treated compared to how they treat Pac, Galaga, Tekken, Ridge Racer, Klonoa, and Katamari, the pre-merge corporation was no better at handling them than when merged.

[@lyleabner2475]

so it's fucking Bandais fault metroid prime was delayed!

[@conradojavier7547]

Nintendo is Force to Resurrect Retro Studios Out of Retirement.

[@Basillikos]

According to old reports, Nintendo started bringing in Retro Studios employees to help them with level designs (which were Nintendo's major problem with Bamco's version of the game) and seeing what else they were doing with the Prime 1 remake, decided to just drop Bamco from the project and restart with Retro instead. The company should be deeply embarrassed they did so badly Nintendo had to publically apologize for their mistakes.

[@kraxusgaming9483]

@@Basillikos thats kinda funny when you put it like that actually lmao

[@Mae4Ever]

@@BasillikosNintendo *KNEW*

[@user-AADZ]

I hate capitalism delays

[@werewolf1423]

The lack of digimon cards in my local area is disheartening but the very limited stock of gunpla is even worse

[@Eeyolius]

At least it's better than just having one year war stuff.its not bad but imagine you like say unicorn and there isn't any and it's still one year war shi.they rarely put out different series

[@DefinitelynotaPupper]

As a Kamen Rider fan myself i gotta tell you that Bandai was indeed REALLY BAD AND DON'T KNOW HOW TO SELL THINGS and THEY CAN BE THAT SCUMMY in some cases I still remember that time when Bandai announces a new product called "Zaia Spec" after the show "Kamen Rider Zero one" shown that product in one of their episodes and Bandai labeled that product as a "Premium Bandai" A lot of people pre-ordered it cuz they thought that it has a Mechanical features like in their previous products And by the time that the product has been officially released a lot of people became ANGRY at Bandai cuz the "Zaia Spec" was just a HUNK OF PLASTIC GLUED ON AN EAR HOOK AND THAT'S IT

[@GiordanDiodato]

licensing issues

[@ducpham1478]

As many have said previously to me, the word "Premium" in P-Bandai literally means limited, and there is no "premium" quality there.

[@VampyKitsune]

I talk about them all the time. This issue is that when you do, you're going to go up against an army of meatriders that think getting the same shows with the same stories, same toys with minor changes to make older models inferior, and games built on the same dated engine that feels 15 years out of date is okay.

[@sonicanvaspost6867]

(shudders in Tekken)

[@VampyKitsune]

@@sonicanvaspost6867 I honestly forgot Tekken is owned by them. It's in another league when compared to their licensed games.

[@sonicanvaspost6867]

@@VampyKitsune and so does the fandom. Just recently, they disqualified a Chinese player, *after hitting Top 8* in their tournament and nobody asked a question to the company. On top of that, their recent DLC Seasons Pass, for some reason, didn't include the stages, on top of their Battle Pass(and Tekken shop) contents are recycled assets from previous game, but recolored to look "new". Imagine paying Ultimate Edition(and Lord forbid you bought the Collector's Edition) and still had to pay up like everybody else

[@KevinSmith-wm8td]

Ah yes, the “Red Square Mafia”. The one that has a near monopoly on Superheroes in Japan… mostly because they bought a majority of the licenses or in the case of poor Tsuburaya and Ishimori Pro, own half of Ultraman and Kamen Rider through their stakeholdings in both production companies. We get ripped off because the competition is limited to nonexistent for certain things.

[@SlapstickGenius23]

Ishimori Pro, Shotaro Ishinomori’s estate, needs to fight back or else, since it’s had enough with Bandai!

[@LivingShadow35]

Tsuburaya, the creator of Ultraman, literally can't produce any new Kaiju of their show without being force by Bandai to pump some new stuff to be toys. That's why New Gen Ultraman have many gimmicks and almost all monsters and aliens are reused characters. And don't forget we are waiting for a New Fighting Evolution game.

[@theredguy4043]

I don't know about that. Blazar gave them a good window to make new Kaiju and hopefully we'll see the same with Arc

[@syahmiirfan6779]

Oh yes, I love the Fighting Evolution series, they're genuinely among the better Ultraman fighting games I have played. I find it bizzare that there hasn't been any new FE game that is being introduced into the series for the past one and a half decade. But perhaps the fact that they're beholden to Bandai Namco might explain half the reason why. It's also bizzarely disappointing that every new Ultraman show feels recycled when it comes to the overarching plot: "A guy from a kaiju control agency gets chosen, he becomes Ultraman, he fights kaiju, he builds a roster of skills and abilities from scratch, he gets into trouble, he gets help from the older Ultraman, he takes down the last big kaiju, rinse and repeat." There's no originality there, and it's really not looking great for them considering how experienced their media production company should be (they've been around since the 1960s'), and the fact that they have a lot of young talents in the game.

[@fanb1536]

As an aside, I wish people would also talk more about how incompetent and terrible of a company Hasbro is. They're not (always) outright malicious like Bandai usually, but my god they are the most frustrating company ever when it comes to mismanaging their franchises and undermining their own potential. I'm mainly a fan of their franchises, so I'm exposed to their BS more, but I've definitely been exposed to Bandai's brand of stupidity too just by association.

[@Kodaiva]

hasbro definitely feels like its trying its hardest to copy bandai

[@rayvenkman2087]

Transformers Earthrise is easily one of their biggest blunders with the exclusives of key characters in their G1 earthmodes with Thundercracker and Skywarp being one example and their Speedia 900 subline is a real mess in getting figures like Cosmos.

[@miragebangbravern]

Even Bandai can still remember their properties and did a slightly better job with Super Sentai/MMPR toys than Hasbro who really made it bite the dust.

[@Lunar_Atronach]

i can't stand the way they release transformers its the most infuriating thing. they basically dont sell any of their transformers in stores anymore so everything is online. that's okay, ill just subscribe to their channels and find out when stuff releases, easy!. too bad they announce LITERALLY NOTHING through their offical channels. the new TITAN CLASS for this year? it got one three minute video on their channel where they just kinda spin it and go "so, its kinda big". now, it was announced earlier, through their long ass podcasts and live streams where you have to sit through so much just *nothing*. Finding information on hasbro releases is like pulling teeth. they released two multipacks of transformers this year, BOTH CALLED THE "DOOM AND DEATRUCTION" PACK. TRY LOOKING THAT SHIT UP. You basically just have to stalk amazon 24/7 if you want to stay up to date at all with their releases.

[@TokuWaffle]

Hasbro and Bandai have both had key parts in the overexposure of MMPR in relation to many other parts of Power Rangers. Exactly what Bandai did is debatable... But Hasbro sure were the ones that have continued that mishandling. New series of the Power Rangers TV series have been a strange mix of basic storylines that appeal to toddlers and a larger emphasis on existing lore no such kid will be aware of. How the hell is a kid going to understand the importance of the Beast Morphers finale if they haven't seen RPM? almost exactly a year ago, Hasbro totally shut down the New Zealand production crew for Power Rangers.... Even though the series had only recently moved to Netflix where it seemingly performed pretty well. Cosmic Fury had a grand total of 3 toys released (Megazord, Morpher and Zenith Ranger mask + dagger set), it never even had a chance to justify the Cosmic Fury suits that were deliberately simplified to be easier to make as action figures. Now the Lightning Collection is also cancelled, I've heard it's due to the lack of a TV show even though it rarely tackled current series (Beast Morphers is 1 Ranger away from team completion in base forms, Dino Fury has 2 figures, Once & Always and Cosmic Fury never got any) And now that the primary toys and TV show are dead.... *Now* is the time to go all out on the MMPR licensing? Now there's a mobile idle game, a console game, new merch still coming out from other licensees... And now PLAYMATES IS MAKING AN MMPR TOYLINE NEXT YEAR???? I also feel they really missed an opportunity to collect licensing revenue from allowing more Super Sentai series they owned to be distributed, instead there was a massive pause between Shout! Factory's Hurricaneger (March 2019) and Fiveman (September 2022) releases, then there has been radio silence since Dekaranger (February 2023).

[@JomasterTheSecond]

Imagine being a fan of Bandai properties in Australia. Despite Australia being closer to Japan than the United States and being close to South East Asian countries that have Premium Bandai available (and have had a brief period in the early 2000s where we got a very popular Japanese toyline and anime series known as Crush Gear localised and sold while it was never shown in the United States), we have *no* chance to get PreBan items such as various Masked Rider items and Gundam models, and even... yes, the PreBan exclusive Crush Gear revival sets. As a fan of the incredibly underrated 90s series After War Gundam X, this means I'm unable to get the now expensive model kit of the Daughtress, which was the first release of this *MASS PRODUCTION* Mobile Suit meant for *ARMY BUILDING.* It is *SO* counter-intuitive to sell that Mobile Suit as a limited run exclusive model.

[@PyrusZodiac]

As a South-East Asian here, having P-Bandai here is like basically not having it at all. Bandai allocates like 20 pieces to each country which gets eaten up by scalpers and their bots no less than a second after pre-orders open. And this isn't even an exaggeration but the truth. Plus, P-Bandai preorders open waay before office hours end so you just know its degenerate basement dwellers who think scalping is their personality and full time grind that have access to it.

[@nover607]

i agree with this one but its up to the stores locally to handle the ordering of them

[@JomasterTheSecond]

@@nover607 That leads to insane markups due to the local stores having to purchase those items from PreBan Japan/Singapore/Hong Kong _at retail price_ and the stores still having to turn a profit.

[@cbbblue8348]

yeah even tourism or export taiwan is like 1 island away from japan and yet taiwan imported stuff are 1/10 of japan prices. They really really weaponized they kawaii culture like alot

[@LuizRhetor]

Conspiracy theory(?): Digimon only didn't triumph over Pokemon thanks to Bandai.

[@Someguyonline7732]

I believe this. Digimon is better. It’s not afraid to go more mature at times while still making more kid friendly material too, however the franchise is constantly mismanaged by Bandai. Pokémon can not write a good story or make a game that doesn’t waste the time of people who are either replaying the game, or are familiar enough with the franchise to not need tutorials. Pokemon literally acts like every fan is six years old.

[@MrPsyren99]

No in this case it was definitely Saban (the man who brought over super Sentai and turned it into power rangers), all he saw was a cheap pokemon imitator and as soon as it wasn't bringing in pokemon money he basically just abandoned it and then when Disney bought his production company they didn't care much either. Digimon just needs a good home in the west

[@Santoryu90]

I kinda doubt Digimon would’ve really get to Pokémon’s level of popular but it would’ve definitely be much more thriving franchise if it wasn’t for Bandai.

[@gregoryfuller9736]

It will be more popular then yugioh if it wasn’t for Bandai

[@megalo_64]

I only focused on the Namco part of the fused companies, and I am shocked by the info about the Bandai side.

[@Lomata-j6w]

The part about Premium Bandai is SPOT ON! Shitty website with shitty order rules. Fuck them for that.

[@rayvenkman2087]

I'm thinking it's a little better than Botcon's website.

[@Skroopy]

I'm still frustrated by them finally opening a EU branch for P-Bandai, only for it to deliver to France alone

[@kamenriderovant9676]

​​@@SkroopyWTH? 🤨 That's like the US zone not serving Canada and Mexico as NA.

[@bltzcstrnx]

​@@Skroopyis that allowed? I heard they're rules for companies to require them to treat the EU economic zone as a whole.

[@Skroopy]

@@bltzcstrnx I think that has more to do with making trade deals with countries outside of the EU, they can't pick and choose one EU country over another. Internally there is free movement of goods and people but companies have no obligation to serve every member state.

[@robotoboy30]

You have to remember one key thing here. Bandai is an OLD SCHOOL toy company. A JAPANESE OLD SCHOOL toy company. Which means that they are functioning off an old idea how to sell things. So they instead just try to maximize profit by printing to demand. They don't like doing regular retail releases because they're risky, and they dislike investing more than they have to. It's just how they are. They're a very old company. Takara Tomy is the same way. And the reason they don't produce more product for TCG's (I own a cardshop) is likely because Dragonball Super (the original game) floundered. Localization is expensive, and they don't want to bother with it. They produce in Japan because it's just easier to do. My customers are always irritated that we don't have any One Piece, so we try to ration it out and we only sell at MSRP - but people just want to buy for resell so they'll do anything they can to buy as much as possible. Their backend website for us is also machine translated if that says anything lol!

[@wintereclipse3263]

My biggest issue is the lack of translating games. People talk about how few Digimon or Gundam games come out yet in reality quite a few do...Just not in English. Outside of the mobile market about 1 game releases like every 5 years maybe 2 if we're lucky but if you were in Japan there's generally 1 extra game between the English ones and those also tend to be the highest quality games. Digimon has luckily been seeing more translations but Gundam still hasn't.

[@Chaosloki]

Sorry about your digivice but you have to understand Bandai is busy making their 13th copy paste asset flip sword art online game. Joking aside how the hell do they keep making SAO games like every year while Digimon either just gets flat out ignored or never released in English.

[@MrVecheater]

Xenoverse 2 is a Bandai Namco masterpiece, too: - has the netcode we all know - accidentally disabled DLCs for random players at least twice - implemented a currency you can buy optionally for real money except you can't on PC - there is not much content to buy - announced a new currency you can exclusively buy for real money a few months ago but never released it - has time limited online events - one of which related to the latest DLC didn't work for a few weeks on PC and until the end of the event on xbox - some events return as once each 5 years or so

[@A.B.-ub9un]

I remembered when Bandai was the one who used to make the Yu-Gi-Oh card game before it got owned by Konami. The Bandai version barely had anything to do with the manga or anime, and was only ever sold in cardass machines despite how the anime and manga depicts the cards being sold in booster packs, and of course, no one was buying the cards due to lack of interest and how unfaithful it all was.

[@staples.]

The reason for nobody liking the bandai version of yugioh wasn't because of unfaithfulness to the source The source was unfaithful to itself in the few times the card game was played before duelist kingdom Even after The reason people didn't like the carddass Yu-Gi-Oh cards were because of the terrible and unclear rules + the poor quality of the cards

[@A.B.-ub9un]

@@staples. Konami did the best with what they could when adapting the games's rules and mechanics into a actual playable format, and they also referred to the game as "Yu-Gi-Oh Duel Monsters: The Official Card Game", basically playing it off as the real deal, using artwork from the manga. And it worked.

[@mattwo7]

The Yugioh Duelist manga had barely just started and the Toei anime didn't even start until two years after the Bandai OCG released, what are you even talking about? Speaking of the Bandai OCG, I once got a bunch of counterfeit Yugioh cards from an ice cream truck. They included character cards. Imagine my surprise when I learned those were actually a thing once. Course aside from the "The Valuable Book 3" promo cards, Konami eventually brought them back for the Speed Duel format in the form of Skill cards. The Skill cards even have the same light blue frame color as the counterfeit character cards had too, which doesn't strike me as mere coincidence.

[@mrex666productions7]

​@@A.B.-ub9unAlso note that Konami's Yu Gi Oh branch is different from its infamous video gaming branch.

[@thatmtgnerd]

I think Bandai's issue is favoritism. I have never had trouble getting gunpla even the most obscure of releases. But my friend whos into digimon has to make a sacrafice to the sun god it seems to get anything .

[@BaconMinion]

it's even worse if you're a fan of anything that isn't Adventure 01, and even then, good luck. I'm just going to have to sit here and be happy with my one Mugendramon/Machinedramon model kit, all while sitting there and looking at all the Agumon/WarGreymon/Omegamon merch with envy, because I'm never going to get that with my robot dragonsaur. Unless you're a Dukemon/Gallantmon fan, then boy howdy will you get stuff.

[@marek1shtar538]

​@@BaconMinionSame with me but with Gargomon and a few others

[@Kodaiva]

i can't even find some normal releases

[@BlueThePrairiedog]

As a Shoutmon/Xros Wars Tamer, Pain and I are old friends. 😂

[@tbc1880]

​@BaconMinion I love shine greymon. I gave up hope ages ago.

[@gundamzeta3447]

My biggest problem with Bandai is how they basically let Gundam die in the west when it could be huge, it has become bigger in recent years which is mostly due to fans and 3rd party retailers and not Bandai making it easier. I live in the UK and I know many people who remember seeing Wing often when it aired in the west but it’s only seen in dedicated anime shops or Forbidden Planet. MAKE IT EASIER TO GIVE YOU MY MONEY BANDAI!!!!

[@TheObsessiveGamer]

As a Digimon fan myself and fan of numerous other Namco properties that are also suffering cause of Bandai's crap, thank you for bringing attention to this. (also hella hilarious way to do it too). Keep it up man!

[@bryanudi]

"Digimon is the most mismanaged IP out there" DUDE YOU FUCKING BET ITS CRIMINAL WHAT THEY DID WITH MY BABY

[@LtheOriginal]

Wait. P Bandai makes you pre-order things, so they can ship it to you later on, but can still sell out? Then what in the hell is the point in getting people to preorder it, if they're just going to restrict the amount of each item being sold, rather than "Oh we have EXACTLY 45,685 orders for this item, therefore, we need to produce EXACTLY 45,685 to meet that market with no overproduction loss."

[@BaconMinion]

All 'bout that FOMO and having clickbait website articles about how they sold out their pre-order in an attosecond. Because that's what will drive busine- oh, wait, nobody can buy it and they make less than they would because of scalpers. But it makes them look go- oh, wait, everybody hates it and doesn't want to compete with bots set up by scalpers just to get a thing they want at 300% mark up. So they give up and then BN decides to not make any more merch, thus costing them EVEN MORE MONEY. ... What kind of stupidity is this?

[@animeking1357]

Hasbro does this as well with Transformers. I've had to wait for a figure to be restocked after the preorders went out. Like just why?

[@megamegaO]

They want to make sure your money is LOCKED IN first, before they even ship anything out.

[@LtheOriginal]

@@megamegaO locking in sales isn't what I have a problem with. If anything, I think it's a smart way for them to see how much of an item they need to produce without them needing to worry about loss caused by overproduction. The problem I do have however, is how a product can still become sold out, even though they're clearly making the product, after the fact they know people want to purchase it. In fact what really bothers me about this particular practice, is that by adding this limited number to production, pretty much gives scalpers an incentive and a source to make money from. Whereas, if for example, during the sale period, EVERYONE who wanted to buy the item, were guaranteed it, as long as they bought it at that time, then, the scalpers won't even bother, because everyone who wants the item would've already gotten it from the main source, and won't pay x2, x3 the price that scalpers would resell the product for. tl;dr fuck scalpers, all my homies hate scalpers.

[@razrafz]

its probably related to manufacturing queue slot. however they shouldve instead let people continue putting orders for possible next batches of reprint for some very hot items. this is how u discourage scalpers as theres no more fomo and everyone gets to secure their copy, and bandai wont have leftover shelfwarmers. they seriously couldnt think past the length of their nose

[@Majinken]

Being a Tales and a Digimon fan is hell. ALL I WANT IS FOR THE JAPANESE GAMES TO BE LOCALISED STOP REMAKING SYMPHONIA

[@rayvenkman2087]

Bandai: What’s that? You want more Symphonia but also involve the consultants behind Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League? You got it pal! They’re that person in the house who can’t hear the banging on the frontdoor or a grenade blasting it open despite but they can stupidly hear the quiet creak of your bed from the next room like they have super-hearing on. With Bandai, it’s giving us crap we didn’t ask for over stuff we actually want.

[@GiordanDiodato]

a lot of people wanted Symphonia on something that wasn't PS3 or PC if anything, I blame the fandom for that.

[@rxzero00]

Symphonia is more like ported constantly based on the awful PS2 version. Not many that played the GameCube version actually likes that version. If anything, I rather see the PS2 remake Tales of Destiny Director's Cut get ported.

[@TheAbsol7448]

Symphonia has been on PC for ages, don't revisit it unless you're going to be serious about it, Bandai. Since it's on PC, it doesn't even really need to be ported to new consoles. Anyone with a laptop or an old desktop can play Symphonia.

[@JPa-x8p]

Yet they ruin the localized games with censorship and hiring people who just want to push agendas and politics nobody wants to deal with 24-7. Digimon's Judeo-Christian elements get removed in a second.

[@Isaac-gh5ku]

I think Japanese customers and consumers should know about this.

[@ronaldzamora8850]

Like japanese customers will give a shit since they have no problems with their accessibility .

[@goose_clues]

Well we already do except Bandai itself.

[@vtuberloveslug]

As Digimon fans, we carry the heaviest cross. Thank you for making such a comprehensive video of why Bandai is the worst.

[@Jrapadoo]

Thank you for making a straight to the point video with good examples and arguments in 15 minutes. I'm so fucking tired of 60 hour essays on KZbin

[@ITeleportedBread782]

4:13 Coming from someone who’s a Gundam fan, one of the biggest reasons why I got into Gunpla is because of its accessibility to their huge catalogue of kits. Almost everything was available if you looked in the right places. Now, in addition to the Gunpla drought we’ve had for years, a large chunk of new releases are PBandai, which practically neuters the appeal of the hobby. Edit: I’d also like to add that PBandai was fine when it was just recolors and variants, and it’s recently become a problem when new molds/entirely new kits were being sent there. It’s especially infuriating/annoying when a kit based on a character or suit that should have been regular release based on their popularity, is a limited release.

[@tedhodge4830]

I was quite enraged when the MG Re-GZ, which has been out of print for a long time, showed up again first as a 1.5 version.....as the Unicorn colors, which showed onscreen for a total of one second in Unicorn in a hangar bay as an easter egg, was released as a limited P-Bandai. Then, years later, they released the CCA version that featured heavy in the 1988 movie, as a fucking Side F Exclusive. Now, they posted it up for pre-order on P-Bandai after I ordered a copy from Ebay from a Japanese person who shipped it to me from Side F. Insane for an iconic suit from an iconic movie.

[@pacmancdi]

Bandai pressured Ruby Spears and Capcom to cancel the 90s MegaMan animated series simply because they weren't selling enough figures. The ratings on the actual show were excellent.

[@lemon5000-tj6nv]

The classic “it doesn’t sell merch” so many cartoons get canned for that even tho they get good ratings

[@poppinc8145]

@@lemon5000-tj6nv If the cartoons made enough from ads and TV rights fees, then maybe they wouldn't have canned them.

[@ChakraWarrior2012]

THANK YOU! I'm glad someone's talking about their draconic practises. It's even worse how the studios they contract to make their games take all the heat for the crap they impose on the devs, essentially being used as scapegoats. It's insane how deep this Bandai rabbit hole goes.... all these IPs deserve to be under a better company

[@GiordanDiodato]

it's because of anime licensing issues sometimes.

[@Milty2001]

Getting banned for Getting disconnected is wild its crazy how bandai doesn't care about fixing anything that sells well

[@TheHipisterDeer]

They really just don't know how to handle the digimon IP at all.

[@ramaluminus]

Just want to let everyone know, that Gundam have a crossover with Call of Duty, yeah, I don't know wtf going on in the head of Bandai Executives.

[@fillerbunnyninjashark271]

Money

[@F1areon]

Holy shit, that's the *epitome* of the WOW COOL ROBOT meme

[@zg3342]

Honestly the gundam skins were cool af.

[@higherground9888]

All the drugs

[@lolcatjunior]

Bandai earns more on promoting and advertising than selling products.

[@TheNutshaq]

You should look up the number of Digimon cards that have erratas due to translation errors. Keep in mind, almost none of them have reprints to fix the issue

[@TheAbsol7448]

I'm super upset about them not taking full advantage of Digimon since around 2004. I really want to see a modern big budget Digimon game.

[@lupylave415]

Bandai, a company that still struggles to do bug fixes, rebalances, willing to sell a broken game for full price, quick to abandon anything they drop if it goes the slightest bit wrong, will shameless milk anything that makes them money even if the community is begging them for more meaningful updates, so on and so on... I learned through a slow burn. I have learned my lesson and I refuse to touch anything under their development. They know how to make things look good but that's it, it's a scam.

[@blitzkrieg8776]

What's hilarious is their Gundam MMO game they accidentally left the files accessible to anyone for a bit. So if one has these files they can 3D print their own Gundams from the available files. One of those said files are for the Aerial Gundam.

[@BaconMinion]

Do you know else is suffering? Being a Zoids fan, full stop. Sure would be nice to get some of those models without paying like 500 USD for them... it's like TOMY saw what BANDAI NAMCO was doing and said "yeah, let's copy that".

[@metadude1234]

Zoids and Medabots fans unite ;-; I still buy their HMM kits sometimes, but usually on a discount. Mostly i've been picking up a bunch of the original TOMY/Hasbro kits in parts lots

[@torifin755]

ive seen so many zoids in my local hobby store, now i, have ZERO idea what Zoids is other than "wow cool animal robot" i mostly just bought gunpla. cause theres, SO. MANY. ROBOTS.

[@fillerbunnyninjashark271]

Koto zoids kits are expensive for a reason. Get a better job

[@BaconMinion]

@@fillerbunnyninjashark271 No, I'll just stick to being a poor, dirty, unwashed pleb who cannot see the value in spending a pile of money on a kit when I could be enjoying other things.

[@JPa-x8p]

Getter Robo or any Soul of want a minute of your time. Have fun spending $300-500usd on a Getter Robo piece.

[@Tenraio]

I, as a SRW fan literally just a skeleton under the pool

[@Lomata-j6w]

Feel you man, still no OG3 after all these years, only the cash grab that is 30 and DD

[@GiordanDiodato]

because of licensing issues

[@Tenraio]

@@GiordanDiodato There's no need for the All-star one, really, their OG franchise are much more polished due to no license stuff involve so that can pour that into graphic full force. It just forgotten ip nowadays. I sure hope the all-star series can have that degree of graphic one day, which can only dream since most cost will be eaten up by licensing topics and animation team will have to make do what left of it, which is why SRW30 is severely inconsistence in quality, some even downright horrible animated ... or even can be called as animation at all. But really now, it just boiled down to how niche the genre it is, especially the OGs one.

[@boulder5540]

@@GiordanDiodato Not even. They were even pumping out games faster than Banpresto for a time, but it became increasingly clear that the quality's been slipping. The VTX trilogy is ok at best, but with how slapdash SRW30 is, it's become increasingly clear we'll never reach the peaks of the Alpha games or Z/Z2 ever again. Not to mention, it's been almost a decade since the last OG game.

[@miragebangbravern]

​@@TenraioSRW OG3 is the next one to be developed as far as we know and they stated before that they couldn't work on it previously because of the crossover games and COVID.

[@LiaStuart-1881]

The fact that the digimon card game has a huge community inspite of there bull shi yet they still haven't made a card sim erks me

[@omeagadeku7180]

I need this video to go viral so Bandai will release good digimon games again

[@MothroPossum]

I too am a Digimon fan and I too am in pain

[@mattwo7]

People should send this video to the executive offices and investors of Bandai Namco.

[@fillerbunnyninjashark271]

Because bandai Japan cares what gaijin think

[@mattwo7]

@@fillerbunnyninjashark271 They will when their investors realize they're making bad de scions.

[@DiceOL]

​@@mattwo7investors only care about profit

[@pablocasas5906]

Now it seems things got worse at Bandai Namco headquarters, now they are forcing more than a hundred employees to quit and they've canceled various projects, basically, it seems BN is pulling something similar to what Konami did back when MGSV was released

[@thesaltyweeb]

Member of the Gunpla community here. Back then when the HG or High Grade version of the Gundam Wing units were released they were all regular releases and we were happy! ...then they announced the upgrades to the Wing Suits and what did Bandai do? MADE THEM ALL PBANDAI. Man the Wing Zero TV Version was a regular release and yet they made the Sandrock Custom, Heavyarms Custom, Deathscythe Hell and inevitable Altron Gundam they were all PBandai! And hoo boy getting your hands on them was hell... Till this day I cannot find a Sandrock Custom thats below $50... Digimon wise... I really wanted the Figure Rise of Imperialdramon Paladin mode but lo and behold he's P-bandai! JUST F-ING GREAT! Oh love the Digimon Rumble Arena music dude, its a great touch! Speaking of Gundam Wing... They also made the side story Gundams PBandai too and my god getting your hands on them were hell, when in the past the side story machines were just regular releases!

[@muhammadharithdarwsih7747]

Seriously.I mean, I get one's nostalgic.That's fine.But too much yup now you go too far

[@kurisu7885]

A long time ago I had a kit of the Heavyarms Custom Ew version. I wanted to get one again but man, Bandai makes it so hard to give them money. And I want to build the Zaku II in every grade, but I can't find a Master Grade that isn't a red one.

[@mousemessiah]

Don't forget BaMco knows the issue of older kits, especially with the "Red VS Blue Bamdai Namco" rule. Instead of giving us 2.0 kits for series like Gundam Wing, Turn A, and 00, they'll just give us new paint jobs with old runners from like 2012. This is especially egregious with Gundam IBO and their well known "Spine Problem" and circular weapons. Whenever a new IBO kit comes out they still use the horrible molds instead of fixing issues with old kits. Imagine the only good G1 Gundam kit being Dynames, w/ G2 being mid or serviceable

[@Sandal-z5b]

They Made the g Gundam shuffle alliance ms pbandai but death army reguler release whyyy

[@zeroanimation3956]

Figure rise amplified Imperialdramon PM mode is P-Bandai?

[@JoshuaVariell]

Every toy company seems to have similar problems these days.

[@lagomorphcavy]

To say Bandai is bad at localization is an understatement. For a long time, the instructions manual for gunpla models is only in japanese. You know, their main product that they sell internationally? They also sell Digimon Cards in Southeast Asia ONLY in Japanese, reasoning that those countries are Japanese Speking countries? Like WTF? They did relese english versions in Singapore, even though Malaysia and the Philippines have a bajillion times the number of English speakers than tiny old Singapore. Bandai lives in an alternate timeline where Japan won WWII.

[@lordtraxroy]

whats even crazy is that bandai originally came not from a video game industry they actually came from selling toys sometimes they feel so similar to the same mindset as nintendo ones with selling toys only

[@rayvenkman2087]

Thundercats 2011 flopped because Bandai was awful with the merch distribution and one of the seasons the show got cancelled albeit flimsily because it wasn’t selling enough toys according to Cartoon Network. The same Cartoon Network that thought CN Real was a good idea and something the public wanted despite the fact no one asked.

[@kurisu7885]

And CN still won't listen to fans. Adult Swim is basically holding them up now.

[@conradojavier7547]

​@@kurisu7885Adult Swim is Practically the Spiritual Successor to CN.

[@lemon5000-tj6nv]

@@kurisu7885at least we got gumball season 7 so we can see how the cliffhanger will resolve , and regular show is coming back Other than that they’re washed, idk who is asking for a pre school foster’s home or all these adventure times spin offs outside of more Fiona and cake

[@fillerbunnyninjashark271]

Bandai America isn't bandai Japan though... They might as well be completely separate companies

[@ShadowWolfRising]

@@kurisu7885 Not only are the holding them up, they have officially claimed more than half the time slots.

[@veedramon]

This video perfectly sums up how bandai treats digimon. Let's also not forget how bamco treated survive guilmon with some people getting codes at launch while others didn't. Or next order being limited physically for whatever reason despite it being easy to get a physical copy of it for the ps4 version. Also the fact that bandai refuses to localize the pendulum 20th despite every comment section I've seen on their social media posts about the dm20th has comments about begging for it.

[@user-fe8gx3ie5v]

LGBT 🤢Get help.

[@speedm222]

i only managed to find a physical copy of the klonoa collection AT A CON FOR A JACKED-UP PRICE. and then they insist that if you wanna get a new klonoa game you have to buy the hard-to-find collection that we only ever advertised in a nintendo direct ;-) i genuinely hope this company gets mega-sued for their practices.

[@Martin_TheCollector]

I recently began collecting anime figures. Learning that some of the best looking ones from Bandai are sold exclusively in Japan was super upsetting. Plus now they're increasing the prices and decreasing the size of numerous figz. It's so very Lame.

[@sparkthedog6291]

Bandai Namco's constant mistreatment of CC2's original works (.hack, Little Tail Bronx, anything that isn't a Naruto game, basically) needs to be studied

[@ryanwinter8813]

I too have been burned by their decisions with Digimon, but also, their sister series, Tamagotchi. They recently had an interview with a prominent Tamagotchi KZbinr and there was not a single encouraging thing in that video. They ignore very strong fan demand for specific re-releases, and instead, insist on waiting for anniversaries. They claim to care about their established fanbase but admit they're more interested in "core america" but their strategy for going after "core america" is to just flood the market with remakes of the very dated original tamagotchi that isn't even a faithful remake and is easier to kill thanks to a change in how snacks work, and they changed the way care works so that even tamagotchi veterans won't understand why they're not getting the pet they want. They also offer very short support life for their tamagotchis online connectivity, their most recent one relies on DLC for content but you cannot hold more than one DLC on your device, so it just makes the DLC not very appetizing to me.. they also have a very disgusting nickname for their adult fans, the "kidults", im sure it makes most fans want to wretch, feels very dehumanizing. There was also pretty much the entire decision with the Tamagotchi anime. They dubbed one season with the most unprofessional voice actors i've ever heard ( coincidentally it also made the anime much funnier than it was probably meant to be ) and then just gave up after that, when this really could have gotten more fans interested if it was broadcast on TV, that's pretty much how Pokemon got it's start outside of Japan, the anime carried it for the first few years. They won't even offer a sub. But they'll still refrence the hell out of the anime in that new video game that is APPLE ARCADE EXCLUSIVE. That's another thing, this new Tamagotchi Connection Remake is coming out but is missing one of it's most hype features, the ability to connect to Tama Town and play games with your v-pet and earn prizes and currency. Their excuse: We have video games now. But nobody can play it unless they buy a fucking Ipad. So again, that's just less exposure for the brand that they claim to want to get in front of "core america", because core america loves exclusive shit. Lastly, this new coming device has no pause feature. Why? "Because you can't really pause a pet irl", bullshit, it's because Japanese releases don't have a pause button and Bandai always leans into Japanese nostalgia more than the west, even though they want "Core America" and the "kidults" have jobs, and kids have school, a thing virtual pets were FAMOUSLY BANNED FROM because kids took them to school with them, not knowing you could pause them by leaving it at the clock setting screen. Maybe if they just had a normal pause, that wouldn't have happened. Sorry for that wall of text. But man they've frustrated the shit out of me with Digimon and Tamagotchi especially.

[@unknownscientist1530]

I recently was having a huge nostalgia high for Tamagotchis recently and found out that they were rereleasing the very same model I owned as a kid, and started to get back into the hobby because of it. But was I completely unaware of the company's short comings when it came to their product lines. While I'm not nearly as offended about the term "kidult" (Anything beats manchild in my opinion.) I am pretty peeved that they basically said that they weren't bringing back Tamatown, a staple that pretty much elevated the connection line. They aren't going to release things like the V4 onward unless it coincides with an anniversary, despite the fact that fans are foaming at the mouth for those reworks and Bandai is just choosing not to give the fans what they want. As well as the removal of arguably one of the most useful and VITAL features is a pretty big let down. The pause feature is what really gets me though, the joy of having a virtual pet is, well, it's not an actual pet. Sure, you can't pause a pet IRL, but isn't that why people buy digital pets in the first place? To have the gratifying experience taking care of a creature that you know deep down is just a small series of pixels? I like Tamagotchis and the brand, like a lot. I had fond memories of the version I had as a kid, and I preordered the connection rerelease as soon as I could and even bought myself a Gen 1 repro and have been enjoying it since. But I'm already raising an eyebrow with how they're treating it.

[@kanchomerocks12]

Wait, the new tamagotchi doesn't have a pause feature?! That's so weird. At least Digimon included a pause feature several years ago. I don't get bandai at all

[@timothydarden6133]

As a Tamagotchi fan, THANK YOU for saying this. I was propelled into the franchise from the anime, and I don't have much experience with the devices, but seeing how they've also got problems, I am sincerely surprised at how Bandai can be so lousy and yet so successful at the same time. Things would be quite different if Namco was dominant in their merger back in 2006, and I wish I could be in that timeline.

[@noir6467]

I'll never forgive Bandai by cancelling their Cowboy Bebop line just because Vicious didn't sell well enough. Just two figures and they had a prototype for the next one being Faye Valentine, who I feel could have sold pretty well.

[@bones3349]

the way they treat shf pisses me off so much. there's too much to go into in a KZbin comment

[@CanonessEllinor]

Wait, they cancelled the line because a character who only appears in FIVE EPISODES didn’t sell well? And they released him before 3/4 of the main cast (I’m assuming Spike was the other figure produced because duh), including the incredibly marketable female lead? Jesus hell, Bandai.

[@Ergeniz]

Try First4Figures, they made some pretty good Cowboy Bebop figures.

[@bones3349]

@@CanonessEllinor they do this shit all the time, god knows what they are thinking. look at bleach. they made renji second before literally anyone that people actually like and care about. you can look at official popularity polls, it makes no sense. obviously hes a shelf warmer, no one cares about renji.

[@Eyeofnelms]

The Gundam Fanbase knows how terrible this company is, and we don't have a choice but to eat their bullshit if we want to keep the gundam franchise alive.

[@RezaQin]

Witch From Mercury, minus the music and most of the MS designs, was so bad. Could have been another Zeta but with a better ending.

[@Xios_Angelis]

God yeah...unfortunately THEY AREN'T EVEN THE WORST PLAMO COMPANY I BUY FROM Stupid Games Workshop can't even make logical runners

[@UshankaRat]

The worst part of the One piece tcg is, i bought an English copy of the Crocodile starter deck, and they shipped me the jpn and refused to replace it with the proper deck i ordered on amazon, effectively losing my interest in wanting to learn the game

[@cartergamegeek]

The Klonoa Phantasy Reverie Series, is far more silly. You have a Japanese version, an Asian market version sold all across Asian areas, and that one EU version, so they not only ignored America they did decide that most of Asia was getting the kind of physical version that is just a one size fits all offering for Asian areas, so that covers a lot of countries.