Bandai Namco Entertainment Australia

Bandai Namco Entertainment Australia Pty, Ltd. is a video game distributor that serves Australia and New Zealand. The company is well known for trading under the name Ozisoft throughout its lifespan, and being the distributor for Sega products in these territories.

Bandai Namco Entertainment Australia Pty, Ltd.
Formerly
  • Ozisoft Pty, Ltd.
    (1982–1987, 1998–2002)
  • Sega Ozisoft Lty, Ltd. (1987–1998)
  • Infogrames Australia Pty, Ltd. (2002–2003)
  • Atari Australia Pty, Ltd. (2003–2009)
  • Namco Bandai Partners Australia Pty, Ltd. (2009–2013)
  • Namco Bandai Games Australia Pty, Ltd. (2013–2014)
  • Bandai Namco Games Australia Pty, Ltd. (2014–2015)
TypeSubsidiary
IndustryVideo games
Publishing
Founded1982 (1982)
Headquarters
Australia
OwnerNamco Bandai Partners (2008–2013)
ParentSega (1987–1998)
Infogrames (1998[lower-alpha 1]–2009)
Bandai Namco Entertainment (2009–present)
SubsidiariesBandai Namco Entertainment NZ Pty, Ltd.

History
former Ozisoft corporate logo

Ozisoft was established in 1982 in Sydney (Australia) and Los Angeles (California) by Kevin Bermeister and partner Mark Dyne. Ozisoft was one of the first interactive multimedia companies. In 1987, Ozisoft began representing Sega Enterprises Japan (now formally known as Sega Corporation) in Australia and New Zealand. During this period, Ozisoft released a variety of Sega consoles, including the hugely successful Sega Mega Drive. By 1990 Ozisoft was Australia's largest international software distributor.

Sega-Ozisoft distributed home entertainment and educational products and software in Australia and New Zealand such as Sega products plus software for PCs, Nintendo and Sony PlayStation. Mastertronics Group, distributed Sega video games in Europe. PF Magic is another Contender. Radica Games and Jakks Pacific notwithstanding. Pactronics & Imagineering. Sega Ozisoft owns 8 percent.

On 6 May 1992, Sega Ozisoft Pty Ltd was established by Bermeister and Dyne. Sega Ozisoft has exclusively represented in Australia and New Zealand the world's largest and most foremost publishers including Virgin, Sierra, Viacom, Ocean, Accolade, Time Warner, Acclaim, MicroProse and Starwave. The Sega Ozisoft franchise is one of the most successful in the multimedia area. On the 31 March 1998, Sega relinquished its controlling share and the company reverted to the name Ozisoft Pty Ltd. On the 15 December 1998, Infogrames Entertainment SA acquired majority shareholding in Ozisoft Pty Ltd and On 15 April 2002, Infogrames acquired 100% ownership, and renamed OziSoft to Infogrames Australia Pty Ltd. On 8 May 2003, Infogrames Australia Pty Ltd changed to its most incarnation, Atari Australia Pty Ltd. Atari Australia's head office is located in Alexandria, Sydney.

Atari Australia has released industry leading titles including Metal Gear Solid, Tomb Raider, Colin McRae Rally, Driver, Unreal Tournament and Resident Evil.

In 2008, Atari Australia's ownership was moved to Distribution Partners S.A.S., a new joint-venture between Infogrames and Namco Bandai Holdings, to which the latter acquired a 30% share in Atari Australia and Atari New Zealand.[1]

On 7 July 2009, following the 34% purchase of Atari Europe's operations, Namco Bandai Holdings completely acquired Atari's Asian operations as well as Atari Australia and Atari New Zealand. The company was soon renamed as Namco Bandai Partners Australia, but would still distribute Atari's titles in Australia.[2]

Notes
  1. Infogrames did not fully own Ozisoft until 2002.

References
  1. "Infogrames/Namco Bandai Europe deal". GamesIndustry.biz. Retrieved 24 February 2022.
  2. "Aussie Nintendo - Australia's Best Nintendo Coverage". Archived from the original on 7 July 2011. Retrieved 9 July 2009.
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