A trademark filed by Bandai Namco from December 29 has surfaced online, detailing something the company is calling Bandai Namco Next. From the description further down the trademark, it appears that Bandai Namco Next could very well be a means for the company to showcase its upcoming products, including video games.
The key signifier of this is a line from the list of details that reads: “providing information about video games”. This is part of a larger list of other things Bandai Namco Next could cover, including concerts, amusement machines and more.
To keep your expectations in check, Bandai Namco Next is just a trademark for now, and it’s not a guarantee something will come of it. We don’t know if it will indeed end up becoming a presentation format for the company, but the naming convention does fall in line with the likes of Nintendo Direct, Inside Xbox and PlayStation State of Play.
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Does it make sense?
When you think about it, a Nintendo Direct-style of presentation could benefit Bandai Namco tremendously, especially considering the high volume of video game franchises under its umbrella. Ace Combat, Dark Souls, Dragonball, Tekken, Soulcalibur and Pac-Man all come to mind.
Bandai Namco is also the publisher for Elden Ring, FromSoftware’s highly anticipated role-playing game. It’s understandable, then, that Bandai Namco would want to break news about Elden Ring itself, and it would certainly put its own brand of digital showcase on the map.
After general manager of Xbox Games Marketing, Aaron Greenberg, poured cold water on the hopes of Elden Ring being featured in an upcoming Microsoft event, fans were understandably disappointed. But if this is where Bandai Namco Next is going to step in, then we might not be that far out from finally getting some Elden Ring news after all.
