Walt Disney was credited for his many contributions to entertainment. In animation, live action, and theme parks there was no one that could hold a candle to Walt. Countless books had been written on his origins, and the works of his company. Historians, and his employees could tell you that he was a complex man. Like the greatest visionaries was able to see markets that were invisible to the rest of the world. A century ago animation was a novelty, and today it was a multi-billion dollar industry. The same thing could be said of gaming. The electromechanical games of the post WWII era would someday evolve into the biggest form of entertainment in the world, estimated to be worth $282 billion dollars in 2024.
Mr. Nakamura was a fan of sport shooting, and we could see that through many of Namco’s earliest arcade hits. From the electromechanical light gun games in the ’60s, all the way through the Time Crisis, and Gun Panic series in the ‘90s. More than that he was well studied in the concept of play, and gaming. He was a consumer of all things entertainment, and heaped praise on creators, such as George Lucas, and Steven Spielberg. In 1985 he went into talks with Warner Communications which owned Atari prior to his acquisition because Namco was interested in getting into film as well. This was more than just the sake of diversifying their corporate portfolio. In 1987 Mr. Nakamura had a meeting with George Lucas in Los Angeles to discuss the future of entertainment. Mr. Nakamura was blown away by Star Tours at Disneyland, which had opened a couple years prior. He believed that gaming was a culture. He argued that film, gaming and entertainment should not be separate experiences, and they should cross over. NG (Namco Graffiti) magazine quoted him “It's no longer just a dream that a Lucas movie could become a Namco game, or that a Namco game could turn into a Lucas movie. Furthermore, it would be wonderful if we could create a completely new world in which various elements come together, such as games and movies, rather than clearly separating them.”
The ideas of a gaming theme park were starting to take shape. It would be something even more fantastic than "Namcoland," which was a collection of rooftop amusment rides put together in an indoor area. Mr. Nakamura led Namco to begin maintaining arcade centers and amusement parks across Japan, including Carrot, PLABO, and Namcoland. He also pushed the company to set up arcades overseas. Namco would purchase the Aladdin's Castle chain from Bally in the USA. Mr. Nakamura had gained the respect of the various manufacturers as he also became the chairman of the Japan Amusement Machine and Marketing Association (JAMMA), which had representatives from all of the major arcade manufacturers including Nintendo, Sega, Taito, Koei Tecmo, Capcom, and Konami. Mr. Nakamura purchased Japanese film studio Nikkatsu in 1993, and was involved with many of their films.
Namco had taken on the distribution contract for Atari of Japan in 1974, and by 1985 he had bought the parent company in the USA. What made him successful was more than just being at the right place, at the right time. There were thousands of companies that came, and went during his lifetime. Mr. Nakamura’s entire approach to Namco was counter to what Japanese business culture, and society dictated at the time. He had to go to multiple banks in order to convince them to lend him the money to purchase Atari. They saw gaming as a risky venture, but he saw it as the future. In the '70s Japanese copyright law was fairly lax when it came to pirated software. Most manufacturers accepted that pirated games selling for 30%-40% less than the genuine title would eventually flood the market. They considered this a "fame tax" showing how successful their hits were. Mr. Nakamura however saw that with the changing economy he needed to protect his investment. He brought lawsuits against several pirate firms to the Tokyo District Courts. He won the first court ruling in Japan, and established that video games were entitled to protection under Copyright Law.
The domestic amusement machine industry thought that Mr. Nakamura had gone too far. They believed that he made it difficult for arcade operators to run their businesses by having to pay full price for a game. Changing the way the industry thought about the rise of arcade gaming wasn't the only hurdle that he had to overcome. In Japanese culture the idea of “gaming” in general had a negative connotation, it was almost taboo, akin to gambling. It seemed contrarian that Mr. Nakamura had built his business model around the concept of "play." Namco’s corporate slogan “Let’s create play,” and also “We create play” seemed very risky in the conservative Japanese market. Walt Disney could see a huge potential for animation in the 1920’s. A half-century later Mr. Nakamura saw that gaming was the future of entertainment. He believed that the traditional industrial classifications needed an overhaul. In an interview with Kazuhisa Maeno he mentioned that of the three classifications, the third one (commerce, and services) accounted for 70% of Japan’s GDP. He believed this was a lopsided classification that didn’t tell the whole story.
Information industry jobs were changing society by leaps, and bounds. Computers were being adopted in every business, and would also be making their way into homes, and schools. He saw with the shift from manual labor to intellectual work that people would be very mindful about how they spent their leisure time. He argued that there should actually be five industry classifications. Mr. Maeno wrote in his interview “As Namco's president sees it, tertiary industry should refer only to those services, such as taxicabs, which depend purely on manual labor. Intellectual services such as computer programming would be called the "quaternary" industry. And finally, businesses which provide comfort to the mind and spirit, from insurance to movies and entertainment [including video games], would be gathered together as the information industry.” In 2023 the video game industry generated about $180 billion, compared to theme parks at $23.4 billion, and $8.9 billion for the movie industry. The rapid growth of video games over the past 50 years demonstrated that Mr. Nakamura was ahead of the curve.
In order to gain the lion's share of the emerging gaming industry Namco wanted to own, and operate their own play spaces. Similar to how they ran the Japanese rooftop amusement parks starting in the '50s. Themed arcades were not necessarily a new concept. “Invader Houses” were the names given to pop up arcades in Japan thanks to the success of Space Invaders in the '70s. In the USA there were arcades called
Time-Out which had a sort of rainbow spaceship theme. The
Gold Mine was themed like, well, a western gold mine, complete with hanging lanterns, and wooden support timbers. There was also
Aladdin’s Castle, based on the legends of the magic lamp in the Arabian peninsula. I looked forward to every arcade that I visited in the late ‘70s, through the ‘80s, and early ‘90s because they were all unique. The thing that made Namco’s arcades different was that Mr. Nakamura made sure that every employee understood his vision, and worked toward it. His business philosophy was not something that he kept behind closed doors in the boardroom. It was actually part of Namco’s marketing campaigns.
For example, Milaiya was arguably the most themed arcade of the era. Namco had plans to build a fleet of these arcades. The concept arcades were space shuttles-visiting Earth from the future. The original location was near Kamata station in Tokyo, which operated from 1982 to 1985. It was presented to audiences with the following promotional text
“Aiming for a 21st century play space - “Milaiya” transcends the conventional image of game centers. The pleasure of traveling back in time captivates customers and captivates them. Nowadays, the space shuttle shuttles between the blue Earth and the dark sky, and a third wave is spreading across the planet. Technology is moving from factories and businesses to homes, and innovation is permeating every corner of our lives. From now on, people will become more concerned about how to utilize their private time, and more emphasis will be placed on hobbies and entertainment.”
The promotional flyer continued;
“At NAMCO Co., Ltd., as a leading company in the 5th industry (emotional service industry), we believe that a game center is not just a place to put game machines, but an autonomous space with its own theme. I think it has to be. Game Space "Milaiya's main theme" is "SF fantasy". As a relaxing place for HOMO LUDENS, every inch of the exterior and interior features a different-dimensional space filled with a futuristic feel. Its large mass and strong attraction force make it a shining black hole in the city, and it is so attractive that not only young people but also a wide range of people are drawn to it without even realizing it.” The arcade not only had a gorgeous sci-fi interior, even the entrance was themed, with a robot host welcoming players at the door.
You might have noticed that the flyer called visitors Homo Ludens. That word actually came from a 1938 book originally published in Dutch by historian and cultural theorist Johan Huizinga. It discussed the importance of the play element of culture and society,
Huizinga invented the concept of the Magic Circle. The magic circle meant that audiences would participate in a play, or ceremony with certain rules, whether it was going to court, getting married, or playing a sport. These events took place within the “magic circle.” He suggested play was the central element in human culture and examined the role of play across every aspect of society. The title, Homo Ludens, translated to “Man the Player” it was the next step in the evolution of Homo Erectus, and Homo Sapiens. Namco certainly took the philosophy of play very seriously, and we would see it again in the future.
So the question that many had was if Namco was putting their chips on the future of gaming why did Milaiya close two years after being built? Tokyo-based writer Matt Alt had this to say; “As for why it was so short lived, I suspect it's the 1985 amendment of the Public Morals Regulation Act to include game centers, which effectively barred anyone under 20 from arcades. The law also had an unintended effect: it sent sales of Famicoms & other consoles soaring.” This did not deter Mr. Nakamura from his vision. In the USA there were no laws about kids in the arcades. So he made sure that Namco would be able to expand into overseas markets. Also, he would make sure his company was turning their arcade hits into the first generation of console hits as well. Being able to fill his company with the right minds was the key to his success. We will look at how he did this in the next blog. As always if you would like to sponsor me
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Wonder Eggs, and Egg Empire research collected from: Wonder Eggs Guide Map, Namco Graffiti magazine, the book “All About Namco II", NOURS magazine, The Namco Museum, Namco Wiki, Ge-Yume Area 51 Shigeki Toyama Collection, mcSister magazine, first person attraction details from Yoshiki. Event details from Hole in the Socks
