Bandai Namco is making a big shift in how it develops games. They have started working full-time on their own game engine, which they first revealed back in 2019. This new engine will slowly replace Unreal Engine and other third-party tools they have been using for years. The idea is simple: be able to save money, give their developers more control, and have technology that works exactly the way they want.
At the moment, Bandai Namco ships most of its games with Unreal Engine 4, and quite rightly so. Unreal is massively powerful, covering libraries for loads of different platforms, and most importantly, it’s easy for developers to use. But from a gamer’s perspective, there is a slight problem: games start to feel a little similar when the same engine is used by so many studios. This is sometimes referred to as a “technical flavor” problem. With the creation of their engine, Bandai Namco can wield the power of making games that look and play very differently, in ways that feel unique to them.
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Money-wise, it makes sense. Using someone else’s engine, one has to pay license fees, which, accumulated over several years, can be in millions. I do recall reading about Capcom doing it the same way: they had MT Framework before RE Engine, and both have reaped the benefits of making great games while not incurring extra costs on third-party tech. Sony has its own Decima that powers huge stuff like Horizon and Death Stranding. Nintendo mostly builds its tech too, only using Unreal for specific games like Pikmin 4 and Yoshi’s Crafted World.
A custom game engine can also allow Bandai Namco to build the engine for a specific hardware platform. For example, they can make sure their games perform best on PlayStation, Xbox, or even the forthcoming Nintendo Switch 2. This will give rise to faster load times, smoother graphics, and even some functionalities that may be nigh impossible using an off-the-shelf engine.
Then again, switching engines is no walk in the park. Training teams to drop tools they have lived with for years is a time-consuming and strenuous exercise. I have seen firsthand how tricky it can become when studios try to change over projects mid-development. However, if Bandai Namco adopts a steady approach similar to Capcom’s or Sony’s, in terms of creative and economic investments, it will likely pay off.
Depending on how things play out, we could be looking at the future of Bandai Namco’s RPGs, fighting, and action adventures running on a home-grown system that powers interesting-looking, smoothly-performing games that should particularly look better on upcoming consoles. This becomes another win for the gaming industry, for studios regaining control over their tools and erecting technology that fits their own vision.
