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There’s only one stadium in the country where you can play arcade-style Pac-Man games while taking in nine innings of baseball.
That venue is Angel Stadium, thanks to Irvine-based Bandai Namco Holdings USA Inc. and the Los Angeles Angels expanding their partnership last weekend and giving Orange County baseball fans a one-of-a-kind arcade experience.
The introduction of Pac-Man arcade games at Angel Stadium made for a pop culture day of the ages at The Big A. Bandai’s most famous brand shared a day with the Angels’ Star Wars Weekend promotion.
Angels and Bandai brass debuted the Pac-Man space, called Level Up, a couple hours before first pitch on April 19, extending a partnership between the two entertainment companies that started in 2022.
The arcade, at the right field pavilion, is part of a four-year partnership between the Angels and Bandai Namco. The financial terms of the partnership were not disclosed.
“We started this in 2022 with Bandai Namco, and what happened was we wanted to take it to the next level. Our guys in sponsorship and marketing came up with this,” Angels Chairman Dennis Kuhl told the Business Journal. “A bunch of us went over to Japan. We saw what they were doing over there. We said, ‘Why can’t we do that here?’”
Kuhl said the creation of a Pac-Man arcade at The Big A was a natural evolution of the Angels-Bandai Namco partnership.
“You got to have more experiences at a baseball game,” Kuhl said of the arcade activation, hinting the Angels and Bandai could develop new ways to entertain fans soon.
The arcade section expands upon an on-the-field Pac-Man race Bandai and the Angels put on after the fifth inning of home games. The Irvine-based division of Bandai and the Angels introduced the in-game Pac-Man race in 2022.
The in-game race and in-stadium arcade help Bandai Namco grow its audience.
“We like to consider how can we try to connect to local people. Our company is located in Irvine, so that’s why we like to put the Bandai Namco brand in Angel Stadium,” Koji Fujiwara, president and CEO of Bandai Namco, told the Business Journal. “In the United States, the popularity of Bandai Namco brand is still very small, so that’s why we have to expand our awareness.”
The arcade section also includes a vending area where fans can buy and collect Gashapon, or vending machine-dispensed capsule toys manufactured by Bandai Namco Toys & Collectibles America Inc. Gashapon, a Bandai trademark, is a popular activity in Japan.
The San Francisco Giants and Angels took to the field after the arcade debut in a rematch of the 2002 World Series. The Angels didn’t eat enough pellets, losing 3-2 to the Giants.
Mike Trout provided all the offense for the Angels, twice hitting a baseball over the fence in left field. The designated hitter hit his 28th multi-homer game of his career.