Bandai Namco has cancelled a Nintendo project

Bandai Namco has taken the difficult step of scrapping multiple titles it has had in development and also reduce its work force. The reason it has taken this drastic step is apparently due to lackluster demand for some of its video games. Bloomberg reports that one of the titles which has been canceled is a project commissioned by Nintendo, though what the project was is not stated.

“The Tokyo-based company is taking a traditionally Japanese approach to reducing staff and sending workers to rooms where they are given nothing to do, putting pressure on them to leave voluntarily, said the people, asking not to be named discussing private information. Since April, affiliate Bandai Namco Studios Inc. has moved about 200 of its roughly 1,300 employees to such rooms and nearly 100 have resigned, said the people. More are expected to leave in coming months, they said.”

“Over the summer, the company further shuttered smartphone game Tales of the Rays and said it would take down big-budget online game Blue Protocol in January. It’s also decided to either cancel or 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.”

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

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