Nintendo-commissioned Bandai Namco project cancelled

According to a report from Bloomberg, Bandai Namco is cutting back on its workforce, which also ties into Nintendo.

The outlet reports that “lackluster demand” has caused the company to cancel several games and scale back on its employee count. Bandai Namco also adopted a common Japanese approach to reducing staff known as oidashi beya, which involves having workers sit in rooms where they’re given nothing to do to encourage them to leave voluntarily. When that happens, many take that time to search for other jobs. Bloomberg notes that 200 or so of its 1,300 staffers have been in these rooms and close to 100 have resigned. Even more could be departing in the months ahead.

Bandai Namco provided the following statement:

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

Meanwhile, going back to how the Bandai Namco is Nintendo-related, Bloomberg says that the company “decided to either cancel or pause development of several games, including ones that feature characters from anime Naruto and One Piece, as well as a project commissioned by Nintendo” It is not clear at this time which title is impacted. In 2022, job listings appeared for some sort of re-release of a Nintendo 3D action game.

Nintendo and Bandai Namco have had a close working relationship for many years, which will likely continue going forward.

Thanks to Bloomberg for today’s news.