Tuesday, October 15th 2024
Troubled Bandai Namco Pressures 15% of Japanese Staff To Resign, Cancels at Least 3 Major Games
Despite the recent successful launch of Dragon Ball Sparking! Zero, which sold 3 million units in 24 hours, it looks as though Bandai Namco is pressuring 200 of its 1,300 employees in Japan to voluntarily resign in what is being called a short-sighted move to boost profits. According to a recent Bloomberg report, the Japanese game developer is skirting strict labor laws in Japan by removing all work responsibilities from 200 of its employees. Allegedly, nearly 100 of those staff being pressured into resignation have already left the company. Along with the layoffs, Bandai Namco has apparently cancelled three new games that were in development, namely, new Dragon Ball, One Piece, and Naruto games.
This shift at Bandai Namco comes in spite of a booming Japanese game industry, which will reportedly grow by 6.66% annually until 2029. Game Developer attributes Bandai Namco's coerced "voluntary" layoffs to the losses generated by the consistently underwhelming performance of the company's online division, which supposedly generated a net loss of an equivalent to $51.35 million in the last fiscal year. If our recent reporting is any indication, there seems to be a shift in the overall gaming market, in which younger audiences predominantly seem to prefer multiplayer (specifically PvP) games. Second to PvP is single-player gaming, which was consistently the preferred game type for more than 30% of gamers, regardless of age groups. This latter niche is seemingly where Bandai Namco's strengths and audience seem to lie, along with many of its other Japanese game studio competitors, like From Software, Nintendo, and Capcom.
Sources:
Game Developer, Bloomberg
This shift at Bandai Namco comes in spite of a booming Japanese game industry, which will reportedly grow by 6.66% annually until 2029. Game Developer attributes Bandai Namco's coerced "voluntary" layoffs to the losses generated by the consistently underwhelming performance of the company's online division, which supposedly generated a net loss of an equivalent to $51.35 million in the last fiscal year. If our recent reporting is any indication, there seems to be a shift in the overall gaming market, in which younger audiences predominantly seem to prefer multiplayer (specifically PvP) games. Second to PvP is single-player gaming, which was consistently the preferred game type for more than 30% of gamers, regardless of age groups. This latter niche is seemingly where Bandai Namco's strengths and audience seem to lie, along with many of its other Japanese game studio competitors, like From Software, Nintendo, and Capcom.
6 Comments on Troubled Bandai Namco Pressures 15% of Japanese Staff To Resign, Cancels at Least 3 Major Games
on a serious note, being "volun-told" to quit is a pretty shitty move. they skirt around it by claiming said employee has zero work responsibilities? I mean, would that mean you could just sit at home and collect a pay check? If I have no responsibilities that seems like a legit argument. I would def dig my heals in and be a super duper prick about this if it were me. Even if that meant going to the office to sit in the break room for 10 hours straight just outta spite and principle of it all. fuck them. it's my job. fire me under legal stipulations if you must, but not via some dumb loophole.
One thing that keeps coming up in the news especially in the last couple of years with the cuts in the gaming industry is that there doesn't appear to be much job security. I read an article on it recently that reported that the average career span in the industry is around 6 years.