Bandai Namco may be the latest big gaming company to face cutbacks. According to a new report by Bloomberg, the Japanese publisher behind the fresh hit Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero, which sold 3 million copies in its first day, recently canceled a project it was working on for Nintendo, as well as other internal games, and is now looking to reduce its headcount as a result.
Earlier this year, the action-RPG MMO Blue Protocol announced it would shutdown in Japan next year and would no longer be coming to the U.S. Support for the Tales RPG series crossover game, Tales of the Rays, also ended over the summer. Bloomberg reports that in addition to these games ending, Bandai Namco also canceled or paused production on multiple games, including a game based on characters from the Naruto and One Piece anime, as well as a project commissioned by Nintendo.
Naruto x Boruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm Connections arrived last year and One Piece Odyssey released in January, but neither drew anything close to the crowd of Sparking Zero. Falling the cancelations, the publisher of Elden Ring and other blockbusters has reportedly been moving some staff to “expulsion rooms” where they are given little to no work until they eventually voluntarily resign, allowing the company to get around Japan’s stricter layoff laws. Bandai Namco denied this in a response to Bloomberg.
“Our decisions to discontinue games are based on comprehensive assessments of the situation,” a representative said. “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.”
Bandai Namco has been a frequent collaborator with Nintendo over the years, supporting development on big games like Arms, Super Mario Kart 8, and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. It’s also produced a number of spin-offs for Nintendo franchises including Mario Sports Superstars and Pokkén Tournament DX. While it’s unclear what unannounced project was canceled, it seems likely Bandai Namco will be involved in helping Nintendo get some of its biggest sequels ready for the Switch 2, which could get its first official reveal any day now.
