Bandai and Namco today announced that the two companies would merge their operations, thereby creating Bandai Namco Holdings in late September. The merger will be the first time that two major Japanese companies operating in both the toy and game business would merge each other's operations. Both companies cited the joint leverage of characters and brand recognition as well technology in an increasingly competitive market environment as reason for the merger.

At this point no further details such as the stock exchange rate have been announced, but RPGFan will keep you updated on this developing story.

• Nikkei Net