Bandai Namco Canceling Games and Cutting Staff

Summary

Bandai Namco is reducing its workforce and canceling several upcoming titles due to low demand.
Over 100 employees have left so far, with another 100 potentially resigning in the coming months.
The company's most recent release, Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero, sold over three million copies in its first day.

Bandai Namco is reducing its workforce and canceling some titles due to lackluster demand, including a contract project with Nintendo. Despite impressive sales for its latest release, Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero, Bandai Namco has reportedly been shuffling employees around since April 2024 as it reevaluates some of the games in its pipeline.

In 2006, Bandai and Namco merged in an effort to reach new audiences, with the company now owning some of the largest game franchises in the world, including Tekken, Dark Souls, and Ace Combat. While recent titles like Tekken 8 and Dragon Hall: Sparking Zero have seen incredible success, Bandai Namco recently announced that the anime MMO Blue Protocol would no longer be released worldwide, with its Japanese servers due to shut down in January 2025. The Japanese company is now choosing to cut costs by cutting staff, but it is doing so in a unique way.

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By Trumann Tu

According to Bloomberg, Bandai Namco is utilizing a Japanese practice called 'oidashi beya' to get staff members to leave on their own, rather than being let go and receiving severance pay. Employees are moved to rooms where they are given nothing to do, and nearly 100 Bandai Namco workers have reportedly resigned since April due to the frustrating method. An additional 100 members of staff are expected to resign in the coming months. The practice is largely used to circumvent strict labor laws in the country, which make it very difficult to lay off members of staff without extreme economic circumstances in play.

Over 100 Bandai Namco Employees Have Resigned Since April 2024

A representative of Bandai Namco claims that the company is not using 'oidashi beya' to pressure people to leave on their own, instead asserting that certain employees are being asked to wait for their next assignment. Unfortunately, the company recently canceled the mobile title Tales of the Rays, and has also announced that it will pause the development of several titles, including those featuring characters from the popular anime and manga series One Piece and Naruto. Bandai Namco will also cease work on a project commissioned by Nintendo, though no details about the game were given.

While these delayed and canceled projects seem to spell trouble for Bandai Namco, the company is currently celebrating a big win with Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero. The first new entry in the Budokai Tenkaichi series in 15 years, Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero's day-one sales surpassed three million worldwide following its launch on October 10. It also reached a concurrent player count of 122,554 on Steam, proving that Bandai Namco still has plenty of magic up its sleeve.

Fans are excited about a number of upcoming anime-inspired releases from the developer, including the recently leaked Death Note: Killer Within and Bleach: Rebirth of Souls. As neither of these titles have concrete release dates, gamers hope that they won't be negatively impacted by the current situation at Bandai Namco.

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