Bandai Namco Games has announced that it will open the rights to seventeen of its older intellectual properties beginning this April. Game companies and developers will be permitted to use or alter characters, stories, and music from these games as they please. Bandai Namco hopes that doing this will bring back interest in these properties.
The seventeen properties are as follows:
- Pac-Man
- Xevious
- Dig Dug
- Galaga
- Battle City
- Tower of Babel
- Galaxian
- Dragon Buster
- Star Luster
- Sky Kid
- Wonder Momo
- The Tower of Druaga
- Valkyrie no Bōken
- Yōkai Dōchūki
- Wagan Land
- Genpei Tōma Den
While developers and game companies will be required to register and apply with Bandai Namco before using these IPs, the company plans to accept all applications, except for games with offensive content. Applications will initially be open to Japanese developers only, though Bandai Namco is considering later opening applications to foreign and independent developers. In addition, they will receive a percentage of the sales for any games using these properties.
