Bandai Namco joins various sport trade corporations which have begun canceling video games and firing workers in current months. In a report by Bloomberg, Bandai Namco has begun to fireplace 200 of its 1,300 workers, with 100 resigning to this point. [Thanks, Bloomberg!]
Firing started in April of 2024, following the cancellations of quite a few inner Bandai Namco initiatives. A particular word was taken of the cancellations and shifting away from cellular and PC initiatives. Throughout the Summer time of 2024 Bandai Namco shuttered the smartphone entry within the Tales of collection Tales of the Rays and has already made plans to shut out Blue Protocol in January of 2025.
Growth on different titles has additionally been slowed, paused, or in some instances outright canceled. This consists of titles primarily based on the Naruto and One Piece IPs being cancelled or shelved indefinitely, based on Bloomberg. As well as, a title commissioned by Nintendo has additionally been placed on ice, based on this similar report.
Bandai Namco shouldn’t be the primary studio to announce steps again from live-service and cellular video games. Sq. Enix introduced the shut downs of a number of of its cellular titles, together with Dissidia Closing Fantasy: Opera Omnia, NieR Reincarnation, and Closing Fantasy Courageous Exvius in the course of the course of 2024. As well as, layoffs and worker firings have continued to hit throughout Western sport improvement studios, together with the likes Bungie, Activision Blizzard, and SEGA of America.
At the moment, there isn’t any details about what this implies for the studios beneath Bandai Namco’s umbrella or what may occur to different video games presently in improvement.
