Bandai Namco – Publisher of games including Elden Ring, Tekken 8 and the recently released Dragon Ball Spark! ZERO is reportedly looking to reduce headcount and has decided to “cancel or pause development” on several games.
The company “sent employees to rooms with nothing to do and pressured them to leave voluntarily,” according to Bloomberg.
iGamesNews
Bandai Namco has so far moved “about 200” of its roughly 1,300 employees into the rooms – known in Japan as “oidashi beya, or ‘eviction rooms'”, the report said, with “nearly 100 people” have resigned.
In a country with strict employment laws, the purpose of these rooms is to force employees to leave, something we’re used to in the Western games industry having a hard time doing, which is a shame. A fad that could reduce the amount of severance they pay.
According to reports, the publisher “decided to cancel or suspend development on several games, including games featuring characters from the anime Naruto and One Piece, as well as a project commissioned by Nintendo.” This seems to be the extent of the details provided so far, sorry anime lovers and Ninty fans. Bandai Namco chose to shut down MMO Blue Protocol back in January, before the global version developed by Amazon Games was launched.
iGamesNews
A spokesperson for Bandai Namco told Bloomberg: “Our decision to discontinue the game is based on a comprehensive assessment of the situation. Some employees may have to wait a while before being assigned their next project, but we do continue to move forward with new projects as they emerge. “Bandai Namco Studios does not have an organization like ‘oidashi beya’ designed to force people to leave voluntarily. “
Following last week’s release, Dragon Ball: Sparks Fly! ” ZERO – developed by Spike Chunsoft and published by Bandai – launched to very positive reviews last week, and you can read our review here.
