In its effort to shrink the company Bandai Namco cancels a few games in development – bad news for fans of One Piece and Naruto.
Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero might have been an amazing success for Bandai Namco but the Japanese game publisher also attracts attention because of some questionable layoffs and the cancellation of numerous games. Two of the reportedly cancelled games in development involved the beloved franchises of One Piece and Naruto. Another project with Nintendo was axed as well. As Bloomberg cited an intern source, these cancellations came as the result of Bandai Namcos attempt to downsize its workforce and multiple layoffs.
This is especially surprising since the last anime-involving project of the company reportedly sold more than three million copies at the first day of release. Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero is Bandai Namcos newest installment of the Budokai Tenkaichi series, with its latest predecessor being 15 years old now. Sparking! Zero already hasv the biggest success the series ever experienced.
One of the measures Bandai Namco reportedly uses to shrink its number of employees is the Japanese practice of "oidashi beya". Literally translating to "expulsion room", the practice is a way to avoid coming into conflict with tight job security laws by sending workers into expulsion rooms with little to no work given to them until they quit. According to Bloomberg, the company already forced over 100 workers to quit that way with over 200 more still put in expulsion rooms.
While avoiding to give a statement about the cancellation of games, Bandai Namco acknowledged the report about the firing-pracitice. Denying the use of expulsion rooms they said that some of their employees may need to wait "a certain amount of time" before being assigned to their next project.
What do you think of the measures the company took? Have you been excited for the games? Tell us about it in the comments!
