Bandai Namco joins a variety of sport trade firms which have begun canceling video games and firing workers in current months. In a report by Bloomberg, Bandai Namco has begun to fireside 200 of its 1,300 staff, with 100 resigning to this point. [Thanks, Bloomberg!]
Firing started in April of 2024, following the cancellations of quite a few inner Bandai Namco tasks. A particular be aware was taken of the cancellations and shifting away from cellular and PC tasks. In the course of the Summer season of 2024 Bandai Namco shuttered the smartphone entry within the Tales of sequence Tales of the Rays and has already made plans to shut out Blue Protocol in January of 2025.
Improvement 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, in keeping with Bloomberg. As well as, a title commissioned by Nintendo has additionally been placed on ice, in keeping with this identical report.
Bandai Namco just isn’t 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 Ultimate Fantasy: Opera Omnia, NieR Reincarnation, and Ultimate Fantasy Courageous Exvius through 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.
Presently, there is no such thing as a details about what this implies for the studios beneath Bandai Namco’s umbrella or what might occur to different video games presently in improvement.
