When you think of "Namco," you don't think of "Snoopy" or "Sanrio"--you think of "Tekken" and "Soul Calibur." But that's not to say the game publisher doesn't have its lighter moments: Last year's Taiko Drum Master offered counterpoint to the heavy going of Namco's usual fare.

　　Over the past month, however, a new agenda is surfacing at the company. It's one that focuses on well-worn (and well-loved) licenses that appeal to kids. Popeye, Peanuts, Atomic Betty, and Hello Kitty licenses have recently been acquired or enlivened with upcoming SKUs by San Jose-based Namco Hometek, the US subsidiary of Namco Co. Ltd.

　　To find out more about the motivation behind the company's new strategy, GameSpot spoke with business director Jeff Lujan--the man in charge of Namco's recent buying spree.

　　GS: There have been a tremendous number of deal announcements coming out of Namco Homtek these past weeks. You're working overtime, Jeff.

　　JL: You hit it right on the head. There are a number of new initiatives at Namco. One of them is family entertainment brands. That's come up because of where we are right now in the hardware life cycles. We have end of life cycle for PlayStation, Xbox, GameCube. And especially in the handheld gaming market, audiences are going to start getting older…it's going to become different than what we've seen in the last few years. And because of prices dropping, our philosophy is that in the area of hardware, we're going to start to see a lot more consumers enter gaming.

　　GS: Older systems, lower hardware prices, new consumers... Is there any relief publishers feel when it comes to costs?

　　JL: At this stage of a console life cycle, actually most development costs are a little bit lower as well--and not just for family properties. Development teams have now had significant time to program and to develop strategies and development tools. In terms of licensing products, it's a little bit of give and take. There's a fee associated with going out and acquiring a license, but [there are ways to help] reduce our preproduction costs as well.

　　Let's use Charlie Brown, for instance. I don't need to spend development dollars now defining who Charlie Brown is or trying to determine what makes him tick, what makes him think, or the way he acts. Over the last 35 years, that's already been essentially defined for me. So in that regard, my development costs are somewhat reduced.

　　But at the same time, obviously, I am sharing in some of my profits with a licensing agent.

　　GS: How do you choose among all the known intellectual properties out there? How do you know what you're looking for?

　　JL: The first thing that I do is to think about what characters and what properties appeal to kids. I grew up, essentially, as a hardcore gamer. I play everything. My friends and everyone else, we're all hardcore games. We're into things like Devil May Cry or Halo, etc. But there's a huge group out there that aren't hardcore gamers. In fact, 60 percent of our segment are not hardcore gamers. These are people looking for properties that they're already familiar with.

　　So I have to always keep that in mind, that I need to address this 60 percent of the segment out there that aren't hardcore gamers.

　　And then step number two: Obviously there are premier properties that everybody would love to get. Properties that have the immediate draw and the immediate appeal. However, the economical impact of having those properties just doesn't make sense.

　　I really look for properties that fall into a few categories. One in that they're on the verge of major presence, of developing major presence in their established field. I think probably a good example of that is Atomic Betty. It's a brand-new cartoon, as a matter a fact. This is a property that's had all the pieces together. It's got a TV show, it's got merchandising partners, it's got some significant retail and marketing penetration behind it.

　　In my opinion, this was a chance for us to get on board with something relatively early in its life cycle, establish ourselves on the gaming side with the property as it grows.

　　The other properties that are of interest to me are well-known, well-established evergreen properties. Charlie Brown and Peanuts are examples of that. These are properties that in over 35 years have maintained their charisma and maintained their interest and their place in people's lives. They're relatively iconic images.

　　And then thirdly, as much as I hate to say it, I have personal memories and interests that I look at, and [then] I try to determine whether or not those would be feasible in today's marketplaces and with today's gamers.

　　If you tie all those things in together and that kind of gives me a starting point of what I want to do and how I go about searching and acquiring licenses.

　　GS: How does this new approach affect your marketing and advertising approach? Who are you selling, the kids or the moms?

　　JL: Namco in general is still catering to the hardcore gamers, and we will be making hardcore games and maintaining the focus of these games towards those consumers. But in this certain business segment for Namco, there will be a fundamental change in how we market the games and the audience that we're marketing them to.

　　I don't expect somebody that will purchase a Charlie Brown baseball game or an Atomic Betty game to go onto the gaming Web site or to purchase gaming magazines. They are our mass audience. I would expect them to be reading Boy's Life or National Geographic for Kids. Something a little bit more commonplace.

　　We would love to reach our audiences through these mass-market channels. You asked something that I think is significant: Am I marketing to kids, or am I marketing to their parents? I'm actually doing a little bit of both. I want to create a game that's fun and that's interesting to my audience, the actual end user, which is the kids.

　　For instance, Peanuts. That's a good bet for parents. Parents see that and they know what Peanuts is. It's pure and they know it's wholesome. They know what to expect from it, and more likely than not they're OK with their child playing Peanuts games.

　　GS: What about price point and distribution. Does the new approach give you some liberties with pricing and distribution?

　　JL: The fact that we're appealing to families means that we need to get into more family-oriented locations. EB and GameStop aren't necessarily going to be where I think I'll be selling the most units. It'll be Wal-Mart and Target and some other mass-market stories...Toys "R" Us.

　　As far as price point goes, because it's a family title and because consoles are dropping their prices, we're now absorbing a new customer who isn't accustomed to paying $49.99 for a game. So absolutely, I have to take into consideration price point.

　　There's a double-edged sword because while I want to make the product as affordable and accessible to as many people as I can, I also don't want to lose that perceived value of the product. When we see a new release and it's at $19.99, we're a little skeptical.

　　So as far as pricing goes, it's premature of me to come out and say right now, yes, it's going to be $19.99 or yes, it's going to be $29.99. I can tell you this, it will be one of those two. I'm not planning on coming out at $49.99 for these titles.

　　GS: And on the development side, any changes to the Namco approach to getting these games created, in terms of internal versus external development?

　　JL: As far as these games go, we are primarily focusing on external development. I found that in developing for licensed goods, once again, there's a double-edged sword here. I already know what the characters are and how they look and how they should respond, and that cuts down a lot on my development cost. The flip side of that is that I now have a new partner in all of this. So where before, when I'm making the game that I want to make, I can approve or reject milestones or game designs that are solely based on Namco's discretion. But now, when I'm dealing with a licensed property, the license holder also plays a key part in shaping the game design and providing approvals.

　　It becomes a little bit more complicated than just making a game using original IP.

　　GS: Right. These licenses are for North America only, correct?

　　JL: That's not actually true. The majority of the licenses that I look for are international and have international appeal to them.

　　GS: Which means they'll be developed and then localized for the various markets you're going to put them in?

　　JL: Exactly.

　　GS: Is Namco adding to staff these days?

　　JL: We're always looking for solid people in all areas. I think right now Namco's hitting a growth surge.

　　GS: Are you hiring staff to support next-gen game development or development for the legacy systems?

　　JL: I would say both. Part of my division here, outside of just the licensed goods, are to maintain development for the current systems. We're looking at supporting PlayStation 2 up through 2010, and other areas within Namco are looking to be out at launch on next-gen systems. We are really just right now putting an emphasis on making great games and covering avenues that a year ago we didn't typically recognize, and that's handheld systems and PCs.

　　We've started up the PC division with the Flagship studio team, and then we have a couple of other titles in development there too.

　　GS: Have you announced those other titles? Are they part of this initiative, or are they original titles?

　　JL: Some are. There are original titles in the PC division, and then there are also a family line of PC products that will be coming out in the fall.

　　GS: Will those have any presence at E3? The new PC products?

　　JL: Oh, yes. Still significant E3 presence, yes.

　　GS: Thanks, Jeff.