Banpresto

Banpresto Co., Ltd. (株式会社バンプレスト, Kabushiki-gaisha Banpuresuto) (TYO: 7854) is a Japanese toy company, best known in America for game development and publishing, headquartered in the Shinagawa Seaside West Building in Shinagawa, Tokyo. It was founded April 1977 as Hoei Sangyo, Co. Ltd. The company was renamed Coreland in 1982, and during the 1980s it worked mainly as a subcontractor for Sega and its arcade division. It has been partially owned by Bandai since 1989, when it gained its current name. It was purchased by and became a wholly owned subsidiary of Bandai Namco Holdings in March 2006.

Banpresto has created a variety of Japan-only video games, most notably the Super Robot Wars series, which gained such a fanbase that three games of the series from its Original Generations sub-series, were translated and released to the US market. Other projects include anime tie-in games such as the Slam Dunk basketball games and Tenchi Muyou! Game Hen. Banpresto also made the Another Century's Episode series, a collaboration with FromSoftware, and the Compati Hero series of games which crosses over the Ultraman, Kamen Rider and Gundam franchises. Banpresto also makes several varieties of mechanical prize-winning games. As Coreland, the company was responsible for the well-known classic arcade game, Pengo, published in 1982 by Sega. Banpresto's video game operations were absorbed into Bandai Namco Games on April 1, 2008. As part of the merger, two of Banpresto's subsidiaries, Pleasure Cast Co. Ltd and Hanayashiki Co. Ltd, became Namco subsidiaries. Banpresto itself now focuses on its prize machines business.