It looks like Namco Bandai's presence in Europe is set to expand as the company has  picked up a 34% stake in Infogrames' European and Asian distribution operations. In other words, Namco Bandai and Infogrames have teamed up to distribute Namco Bandai games in Europe and Asia.

As the recent press release announcing this team-up states,

Infogrames has agreed to regroup its distribution operations into a standalone entity with exclusive physical packaged-goods distribution rights for video games produced by Namco Bandai and Infogrames within Infogrames’ European and Asian territories.

The "standalone entity" (read: new company) is expected to come out with new distribution contracts with other publishing companies, though none have been named yet. The new company should be good to go some time in 2009.

What does this mean for gamers? Simply put, it means there's now a dedicated distributor of Namco Bandai games for Europe and Asia, ensuring that the company's games head to those regions. While it doesn't necessarily translate into simultaneous releases worldwide for future Namco Bandai games, the assurance built by this partnership should be good news for the gaming populace at the very least.