Bandai Namco Begins to Cut Its Headcount and Cancels Some Games

Bandai Namco has started cutting its headcount and paused or cancelled some of its games due to lackluster demand.

That’s according to a new report from Bloomberg, which has revealed that Bandai Namco has seen employees shuffled about since April 2024. According to Bloomberg, it’s a result of the company canceling and pausing some of its projects due to “lackluster demand”.

Bloomberg reports that Bandai Namco has moved some of its employees to “rooms where they are given nothing to do” in an apparent attempt to voluntarily leave the company. According to its sources, the move has already seen nearly 100 people resign since April, with another 100 expected to resign in the coming months.

Japanese companies commonly use “Expulsion rooms,” known as “oi dashi beya” in Japanese, to get staff to leave voluntarily due to the country’s strict labor-protection laws. In a statement to Bloomberg, the company said, “Our decisions to discontinue games are based on comprehensive assessments of the situation. Some employees may need to wait a certain amount of time before they are assigned their next project, but we do move forward with assignments as new projects emerge.”

It continued, “There is no organization like an ‘oidashi beya’ at Bandai Namco Studios designed to pressure people to leave voluntarily.”

According to Bloomberg’s sources, Bandai Namco canceled the smartphone game Tales of the Rays and said it would take down big-budget online game Blue Protocol in January. In addition, it’s also decided to “either cancel pause development of several games, including ones that feature characters from animes Naruto and One Piece, as well as a project commissioned by Nintendo Co,” said Bloomberg.

What do you think of Bandai Namco’s practices in trying to get employee;s to leave? Let us know on the Insider Gaming forum.

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