Bandai Namco is reducing its workforce and canceling some titles due to lackluster demand, including a contract project with Nintendo. Despite impressive sales for its latest release, Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero, Bandai Namco has reportedly been shuffling employees around since April 2024 as it reevaluates some of the games in its pipeline.
In 2006, Bandai and Namco merged in an effort to reach new audiences, with the company now owning some of the largest game franchises in the world, including Tekken, Dark Souls, and Ace Combat. While recent titles like Tekken 8 and Dragon Hall: Sparking Zero have seen incredible success, Bandai Namco recently announced that the anime MMO Blue Protocol would no longer be released worldwide, with its Japanese servers due to shut down in January 2025. The Japanese company is now choosing to cut costs by cutting staff, but it is doing so in a unique way.
Ahead of Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero's early access play period, Bandai Namco issues a message to a streamer who is leaking the game.
According to Bloomberg, Bandai Namco is utilizing a Japanese practice called 'oidashi beya' to get staff members to leave on their own, rather than being let go and...
