Bandai Namco Holdings — the conglomerate of which video game publisher and developer Bandai Namco Entertainment is a part — is reportedly making a swathe of cuts to its workforce, which includes cancelling or pausing a number of projects.
According to a report by Bloomberg (paywalled), a Nintendo-commissioned project is among the cancelled titles, alongside games based on the anime properties One Piece and Naruto.
What that Nintendo project is, we don’t know, but Bandai Namco has previously worked with Nintendo multiple times over the years, helping out with Super Smash Bros. on 3DS and Wii U, and Ultimate, as well as Pokkén Tournament. It also created over half of the assets for courses, characters, and kart parts for Mario Kart 8 Deluxe.
Alongside this, Bandai Namco is reportedly using “oidashi beya” — expulsion rooms — to put pressure on around 200 employees to leave voluntarily, rather than outright fire them. Bloomberg reports that this is a “traditionally Japanese approach to reducing staff” as the employees are given no work to do while in the room. Oftentimes, employees use that time to look for other jobs.
Bloomberg’s sources have understandably asked not to be identified. However, just last month, an anonymous website called Leak Press opened, claiming that Bandai Namco is using various methods to force employees to leave.
A representative at Bandai Namco told Bloomberg “Our decisions to discontinue games are based on comprehensive assessments of the situation,” saying that many employees might have to wait time before “they are assigned their next project.”
The rep also pushed aside claims that oidashi beya are being used, saying “there is no organisation” like that being used “to pressure people to leave voluntarily.” They also refused to elaborate on Leak Press, simply stating that the company knew of its existence.
Just last year, Bandai Namco officially announced Bandai Namco Studio 2 & Studio S, a development studio specifically built to work on commissioned projects, with them even being linked to a Nintendo project. Then, earlier this year, users on social media spotted that the studio was “no longer” hiring for positions related to a Nintendo project.
No mention of that studio is made in the report, but we have no idea what it’s working on at the moment, or if that Nintendo project was one that it was working on.
Still, this is yet another sobering story in a tumultuous industry, which has seen a brutal string of layoffs over the last two years. Bandai Namco hasn’t been immune to these issues previously, either, with the company cancelling the Western release of its MMORPG Blue Protocol just last month.