Although it’s probably due more to clever restructuring and a glut of Naruto titles rather than Hideo Baba’s genius (In my mind though, it is), Namco Bandai has placed rather high in this year’s edition of Toyo Keizai’s Corporate Power Ranking list. So high, in fact, that they surpassed all other Japanese game companies…including Sony and Nintendo.

126th – Namco Bandai – Last year’s position: 442nd
157th – Broccoli – Last year’s position: not ranked
173rd – Nihon Falcom – Last year’s position: 215th
292nd – Sony – Last year’s position: 163rd
318th – Capcom – Last year’s position: 701st
363rd – Sega – Last year’s position: 133rd
363rd – Marvelous AQL – Last year’s position: not ranked
390th – Tecmo Koei – Last year’s position: 451st
567th – Konami – Last year’s position: 355th
1647th – Nintendo – Last year’s position: 219th

Granted, Nintendo had quite a bit of trouble with the Wii-U last year, but to see them drop so low and for Bandai Namco to rise so high is quite a shock. Though I’ll admit to being a huge fan of their RPGs, even I wouldn’t have expected to see the “Tales of” publisher reach such a lofty perch within the industry. With Nintendo taking an 18% loss and Sony still working to get their machine off the ground in Japan, this was probably the best year for a company like Bandai Namco to surge forward. A perfect storm.

These rankings are determined by a company’s growth, profitability, safety and scale, with a score between 500 and 1000 determined for each category. The overall sum then decides a company’s final ranking.