Troubled Bandai Namco Pressures 15% of Japanese Staff To Resign, Cancels at Least 3 Major Games

[Cpt.Jank]

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.



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[skizzo]

which will reportedly grow by 6.66% annually until 2029.

nooice!

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.

 

[64K]

I don't know anything about the labor laws in Japan or their worker compensation laws but I wonder if they are trying to avoid even paying some form of Worker's Compensation by not laying off the employees?

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.

 

[tpuuser256]

nooice!

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.

No, they just become passive aggressive against the employees and since japanese people are usually non confrontational, they just leave. "Resigning" looks better on paper

 

[Bruno_O]

Bandai is only the publisher of the new Dragon Ball game, Spikesoft is the actual developer.

 

[Macro Device]

I don't know anything about the labor laws in Japan

You're an employee = your opinion doesn't count. I wish I was joking. It's just a slight exaggeration.

 

[eidairaman1]

They ever wonder why internet is down for them

 

[natr0n]

Sad times for them it seems.

I miss the original psx days... ridge racer type 4 and stuff like that.
They killed off the series.

 

[Markosz]

So they cancel 3 games that seems to be selling well currently based on previous games... how exactly they plan to make profit in the future, letting go more employees until there is no one left?
The short-sightedness of managers is incredible. "I want more money NOW!"

 

[JWNoctis]

"New Dragon Ball, One Piece, and Naruto games." I suspect there is more to these than what is being reported. Parting out the IP and selling them off piecemeal would have made the bottom line look even fatter. For a couple years.

Unless these were pachinko parlor games, in which case no big loss.

 

[Vayra86]

Seriously though you own several manga IPs and you can't make a solid PvP game?

DA FUQ

Where is Dragon Ball Smash Bros...? I mean, give us a sidescroll battler and tight mechanics and you're done.

 

[ymdhis]

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.

Japanese companies do this often when they want to get rid of someone, but can't fire them due to the consequences to their reputation if they did so. What they do in turn is giving them a non-job, like giving an experienced engineer the task to fold boxes and then take them apart for 8 hours. In the video game industry, this means that the workers are no longer be able to make video games; their career is effectively over if they stay with the company. And they can't do anything else on the side either since contracts can state things like "anything you create during your employment belongs to us" (Disney has that specific clause).
In other words, they are forced out.
One famous example is Yu Suzuki at Sega. After the Shenmue games (and the online mmorpg) bombed, he was not doing anything at the company for years, to the point that even some Sega officials were confused as to whether he is still in their employ or not. Eventually, he left on his own.

 

[Prima.Vera]

That's exactly right. Since I work for a Japanese company I can tell you right away. They use passive aggressive bullying against their employee, even gaslighting and callous tactics, until they stress the employee enough to resign. Been there done that. And if you are a contractor is even worst. If you don't want to leave, they announce you they will not extend your contract and aslo double your work load or targets, until you quit by stress.
Yes, the Japanese companies and specially the Japanese Managers are the worst of the worst in this whole world.