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Masaya Nakamura: Founder of Namco
by Steven Kent for Gamers Today
Of the three first companies to rise to the top of the Japanese arcade business, Namco, Sega, and Taito, only Namco was founded by a native of Japan. Taito was founded by Michael Kogan, a Russian Jew, and Sega was founded by Americans. Masaya Nakamura, the founder of Namco, started his company in 1955 with money he saved while serving as an engineer in the Japanese Navy.
Nakamura started his career with kiddy rides-two mechanical horses which he placed on the tops of Tokyo department stores because other companies controlled all the best locations. He maintained the rides and greeted the mothers as they brought their children in the early days. Now things have changed.
In the seventies Namco hooked up with Atari and became one of the first Japanese game companies. In the eighties, Namco's in-house designers created such games as Galaxian, Pac-Man, Dig Dug, Mappy, Pole Position, Galaga, and Rally-X. Today, Namco is a major force in arcade and home games with such blockbusters as Tekken, Ridge Racer, Time Crisis, and Soul Calibur.
As one of the most successful companies in the video game business, Namco is one of the largest arcade owners in the world. It owns a small theme park in Setagaya, a Tokyo suburb. Namco owns a chain of Italian restaurants, and a movie studio.
Though he seldom accepts interviews, Nakamura agreed to meet with me. Our interview follows.
Gamers Today: It is my understanding that Namco has expanded beyond just games. What else are you involved in?
Masaya Nakamura: We have the Stuffed Tomato Italian restaurants. There are 40 restaurants. If we bring together all of the direct operating companies, stores franchises, and what we call the Café Jr.--small pastries and coffee shops. We probably have more than 250 stores in Japan.
GT: Namco has diversified and become a major corporation. Did you ever imagine this when you first opened your horse rides?
MN: No, never.
GT: Lets talk about the future of gaming. With Dolphin, Playstation 2, and Dreamcast on the way, how do you see the future playing out.
MN: You mean the consumer business? I'm not in a position to comment on any one of those platforms. Suffice it for us to say is that we will be providing software. That is our business. Should any of these platforms generate business for us, that's where we'll be.
GT: And currently Namco is making three games for Dreamcast?
MN: In general terms yes, but in more specific details, we will deliver one software [product] for Dreamcast on August 5. We have not started the development of others yet.
GT: Namco has emerged as a king maker in the console market. Having Tekken and Ridge Racer helped differentiate Playstation. Have you been highly recruited by Nintendo, Sega, and Sony?
MN: Yes, you are right in saying that in the current environment Sega is very active in seeking our cooperation, and we have responded to Sega that we are willing to extend our cooperation through publishing software. I might add that there's great expectation on the part of Sega, and also I believe the players themselves, about Namco's participation in the creation of software for Dreamcast. In fact, during a recent Sega software show, Mr. Irimajiri [president of Sega Enterprises] made the effort to call our managing director in charge of the consumer business onto the stage with him and announced the fact that Namco would be creating software for Dreamcast.
GT: In the past, you and Hiroshi Yamauchi [president of Nintendo] have clashed. Has your relationship with Mr. Yamauchi changed since Namco emerged as one of Sony's most significant software partners?
MN: My understanding is that he has not changed. Nintendo is a big strong company and he has every right to do whatever he wants to do. I have not seen Mr. Yamauchi for quite some time, but my staff tell me that his attitude and his actions have not changed. I personally feel that with age people do mellow, and I'm sure he's mellowed.
GT: It seems as if Alpine Racer has been both the salvation and the death knell of arcades.
MN: Why do you say that?
GT: The arcade business might have died without a new line of games that differentiated the arcade experience from what you can get at home. Alpine Racer defined that difference, but the machines are so expensive that arcade owners cannot afford to leave them at quarter play. So the traditional arcade has had to pass away, and they've needed to go to locations.
MN: Let's first point out that I am the person who conceived the Alpine Racer. I'm the one who pushed the research and development group to create that game, and I was involved in every step of its creation because it was my idea and I wanted to see its creation. You're kind enough to say that that was the savior of the arcade business in the United States. We may have influenced the operation of arcades in the United States, but we're certainly not the savior.
As far as Namco is concerned, it is our belief that we have introduced many games which earned as much as Alpine Racer.
GT: Alpine Racer opened a new genre. Before that, everything was shootingdrivingfighting.
MN: I concur with that.
GT: On a tougher note, President Clinton recently used the advertising for the game Point Blank [known as Gun Barrel in Japan] to demonstrate the problems with the marketing of video game violence to youth.
MN: I was not aware of this. President Clinton used Point Blank as an example?
GT: The advertisement for it.
MN: The ad for Point Blank? President Clinton actually named the game?
GT: He held the advertisement up. The advertisement that says "More fun than shooting your neighbor's cat."
MN: Hmm More fun than... That's a... that's not good. I was not aware of this. I would just like to comment that it is difficult to predict what politicians will do. I cannot imagine why he lifted that poster up, not really knowing the contents of the game. Before doing this political grandstanding, perhaps politicians--not only Mr. Clinton but the politicians in general--should concentrate more on issues such as real gun control.
GT: The funny thing is that I've always thought of Point Blank as the least violent shooting game.
MN: I concur with you 100 percent. It's not a violent game. I think it is our responsibility to make sure that whenever we create these advertisements and posters, we want to be very careful that people who are not attuned to the industry and don't know what the game's are about will not take unfair advantage of just one or two lines of catch copy in the poster. We have to be very careful, but it is very unfortunate and sad that the president of the most powerful nation in the world would bring a poster to a press conference without really knowing the content of the game.
I have not received any reports from my people in the United States that there was any negative impact on the sales of Point Blank as a result of this. I'm sure the person who created this phrase ["More fun than killing your neighbor's cat"] didn't really think he was encouraging violence. It's just that a person reading or seeing this poster or wording on the poster failed to understand the humor in it. That's unfortunate, and you have to be careful.
