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[Astray]

Thanks to ResetEra member "--R" for getting the key excerpts of the piece, as it's paywalled:

Bloomberg - Are you a robot?

Video game publisher Bandai Namco Holdings Inc. is cutting its workforce after canceling several titles due to lackluster demand, according to people familiar with the matter.

The Tokyo-based company is taking a traditionally Japanese approach to reducing staff and sending workers to rooms where they are given nothing to do, putting pressure on them to leave voluntarily, said the people, asking not to be named discussing private information. Since April, affiliate Bandai Namco Studios Inc. has moved about 200 of its roughly 1,300 employees to such rooms and nearly 100 have resigned, said the people. More are expected to leave in coming months, they said.

Such oidashi beya, or "expulsion rooms," are sometimes used by Japanese corporations in a country with some of the world's strictest labor-protection laws. Employees are typically given no work-related tasks, but are left with the knowledge that their performance will give managers ammunition to cut severance when they do leave. Many employees use their time in such rooms to look for other jobs.

Bandai Namco said its goal is not to push employees out of the company.

"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," a representative of Bandai Namco said. "There is no organization like an 'oidashi beya' at Bandai Namco Studios designed to pressure people to leave voluntarily."

Over the summer, the company further shuttered smartphone game Tales of the Rays and said it would take down big-budget online game Blue Protocol in January. It's also decided to either cancel or pause development of several games, including ones that feature characters from animes Naruto and One Piece, as well as a project commissioned by Nintendo Co.

 

[Generic]

The Tokyo-based company is taking a traditionally Japanese approach to reducing staff and sending workers to rooms where they are given nothing to do, putting pressure on them to leave voluntarily

This is scary.

 

[RetroGamingUK]

Any idea what the cancelled games were?

Mobile trash?

 

[hemo memo]

This is scary.

It's not. I will just do nothing.

 

[DonkeyPunchJr]

At least this masterpiece didn’t get canceled.

 

[Punished Miku]

This is scary.

Honestly it's not that bad. It's basically unemployment but you go to work still.

If the company isn't funding the projects, be glad you have time to pay rent and look for another job.

 

[Tiago Rodrigues]

At least this masterpiece didn’t get canceled.

Sounds like Sweet Baby might not last much more.

 

[ReBurn]

Any idea what the cancelled games were?

Mobile trash?

https://archive.is/eU0vN

Over the summer, the company further shuttered smartphone game Tales of the Rays and said it would take down big-budget online game Blue Protocol in January. It’s also decided to either cancel or pause development of several games, including ones that feature characters from animes Naruto and One Piece, as well as a project commissioned by Nintendo Co.

 

[AJUMP23]

Sounds like Sweet Baby might not last much more.

Oh that is not how it will work. They will say you did not trust us enough and go as far as we needed to truly attract the right type of gamer. let us have more and pay us more and we will bring success.

 

[Tiago Rodrigues]

Oh that is not how it will work. They will say you did not trust us enough and go as far as we needed to truly attract the right type of gamer. let us have more and pay us more and we will bring success.

That's...not how it works. There's a reason why they removed their partners from their website.
Publishers want money. If they see this isn't the way to go they will drop them. "The right type of gamer" for publishers is the general public. Not a specific minority.

Again, this is going to end up blowing on their faces sooner or later.

There's a reason Japan is carrying the industry lately...studios will end up understanding why sooner or later.

 

[AJUMP23]

That's...not how it works. There's a reason why they removed their partners from their website.
Publishers want money. If they see this isn't the way to go they will drop them. "The right type of gamer" for publishers is the general public. Not a specific minority.

Again, this is going to end up blowing on their faces sooner or later.

There's a reason Japan is carrying the industry lately...studios will end up understanding why sooner or later.

I am being facetious in my response. But there are many times when you think a thing like this has failed in the free market just for it to be subsidized and rear its head again and again, because the ideology is supported by people who have money. Like Naughty Dog could keep them afloat because they are aligned on ideology.

 

[DonkeyPunchJr]

Sounds like Sweet Baby might not last much more.

I have to think that the SBI games we’re getting now are games that have been in the pipeline for a while. There’s just no way they can still be getting new contracts in 2024. The SBI name is fucking radioactive, its associated with several recent flops, and gamers hate it so much they’re actively going out of their way to identify and avoid their games.

 

[Skifi28]

Giving people nothing to do would never work outside of Japan. Being paid to do nothing is one of the few pleasures I enjoy in life.

 

[Tajaz2426]

Man I love the Japanese. These mothers said I won’t fire you, I’ll just fucking take your stapler till you move on.

Man I used to do the same in the Marine Corps, if someone was a danger to the unit, I would just put them on some detail and face fuck them till they decided that they didn’t want to deal with it anymore and then ask for a voluntary transfer or send them to the career counselor and try for an MOS change to something that would better fit them till the end of their contract.

I loved Iwakuni, Okinawa, Kintai Bridge and the last time I was there the old samurai there was training a teenager to do the job. Amazing stuff protecting the castle and small little village beside them.

I love those damn people so much, they just don’t care about anything but the mission, baby.

 

[mckmas8808]

It's not. I will just do nothing.

Wrong. Half the people they wanted to leave, have quit.

 

[Dr. Wilkinson]

The Nintendo title got canceled?? Yikes, what is going on over there. That’s like two in a row

 

[Northeastmonk]

First time hearing about Unknown 9. That’s a big pass too. Here I usually enjoy Bandai Namco’s games.

 

[DryvBy]

This is scary.

This sounds like heaven. I'd have so many naps which ironically

 

[Angry_Megalodon]

Giving people nothing to do would never work outside of Japan. Being paid to do nothing is one of the few pleasures I enjoy in life.

In my country, they would unionize and try to get more idlers on board.

 

[Fahdis]

This is scary.

I already do this at work before/after getting paid and home for free. Brain dead jobs are the most fun.

 

[Segaswirl]

They could be making a new Ridge Racer right now instead of being paid to stare at walls in an empty room.

 

[ReyBrujo]

Giving people nothing to do would never work outside of Japan. Being paid to do nothing is one of the few pleasures I enjoy in life.

That happens in countries where you cannot just fire employees without a hefty severance package. Down here in Argentina is similar, usually people are given less and less tasks until they leave, however you cannot make them do something different (for example, you cannot put a programmer to test the product) because they could consider themselves fired and access that severance package anyways. The severance package used to be one salary per worked year plus extra months if he wasn't given a two-month forewarning and some more if it wasn't justified or if he wasn't warned if it was due behavior.

 

[hemo memo]

Wrong. Half the people they wanted to leave, have quit.

Becuase of honor or whatever? Nah. I'm a hard worker but If a company want's to play games with me, I will play.

 

[Silver Wattle]

Thanks to ResetEra member "--R" for getting the key excerpts of the piece, as it's paywalled:

No need to give credit, they most likely just used a free paywall bypass, like so:

Video game publisher Bandai Namco Holdings Inc. is cutting its workforce after canceling several titles due to lackluster demand, according to people familiar with the matter.
The Tokyo-based company is taking a traditionally Japanese approach to reducing staff and sending workers to rooms where they are given nothing to do, putting pressure on them to leave voluntarily, said the people, asking not to be named discussing private information. Since April, affiliate Bandai Namco Studios Inc. has moved about 200 of its roughly 1,300 employees to such rooms and nearly 100 have resigned, said the people. More are expected to leave in coming months, they said.

Such oidashi beya, or “expulsion rooms,” are sometimes used by Japanese corporations in a country with some of the world’s strictest labor-protection laws. Employees are typically given no work-related tasks, but are left with the knowledge that their performance will give managers ammunition to cut severance when they do leave. Many employees use their time in such rooms to look for other jobs.
Bandai Namco said its goal is not to push employees out of the company.

“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,” a representative of Bandai Namco said. “There is no organization like an ‘oidashi beya’ at Bandai Namco Studios designed to pressure people to leave voluntarily.”
Bandai Namco is a storied name in the games industry, tracing its roots back to the introduction of the Pac-Man arcade title in 1980. Its current games include Dragon Ball and Gundam.
The Bandai Namco logo displayed at the Tokyo Game Show in 2024.Photographer: Kiyoshi Ota/Bloomberg
Like its competitors, the company’s now under pressure to cut costs and adjust to a post-pandemic drop in the time users have for games. Smartphone and online games have born the brunt of cooled sentiment, forcing Bandai Namco to overhaul its game title lineup, resulting in ¥21 billion ($141 million) in writedowns in the three quarters to December.

Over the summer, the company further shuttered smartphone game Tales of the Rays and said it would take down big-budget online game Blue Protocol in January. It’s also decided to either cancel or pause development of several games, including ones that feature characters from animes Naruto and One Piece, as well as a project commissioned by Nintendo Co.
Rival Square Enix Holdings Co. also canceled multiple loss-making smartphone titles, while Sony Group Corp. pulled the plug on online game Concord
just two weeks after its launch.
An anonymous website launched last month alleges that Bandai Namco is using various methods to persuade people to leave. The company is aware of the website, but the information is not accurate, a representative said, declining to elaborate.

 

[Tajaz2426]

Becuase of honor or whatever? Nah. I'm a hard worker but If a company want's to play games with me, I will play.

Exactly, play the game with them. Neither you or the company means anything to the world at large and you’re just a number hired to do a job.

No cares about the feel feels of anyone. If they put you somewhere to do nothing and pay you and you want to continue, go for it.

I enjoy these types of things between a soulless corporation and people that do not matter. Absolutely love it.

 

[Lunarorbit]

This is the most Japanese shit ever!!!

Like a window facing job. It's where a company has an old timer that they don't know what to do with so they just stick them in a office with a view

 

[ReyBrujo]

I'm a hard worker but If a company want's to play games with me, I will play.

I had a friend, Eirii, who was teaching Japanese down here, she graduated from university and then spent one year traveling the world, reached Argentina and stayed here. I asked her if she planned to go back to Japan and she told me she couldn't anymore because there was a one-year gap in her resume and that companies would not hire her because of that. Now, imagine you are a programmer in Namco, they put you in the freezer and you decide to play. You get no bonuses, you get no improvements in salary, you get no tasks, you just sit down in a desk for 8 hours a day every week. Once you decide it was enough milking, how do you explain you spent one or two years doing nothing, without projects of your own to Capcom, Konami, etc? "Yes, I decided to game the system" is not a good answer.

Like a window facing job. It's where a company has an old timer that they don't know what to do with so they just stick them in a office with a view

A company I was working in once put a secretary in a desk facing the wall with a computer without internet access for 4 months until she quit because she had given the answers to someone who came take our programming challenge to join our team.

 

[poodaddy]

Wrong. Half the people they wanted to leave, have quit.

He's not wrong, he's just saying what he would do.

"I'd hit someone if they hit me", "wrong, you'd just run!"

Weirdo lol.

 

[Woopah]

The Nintendo title got canceled?? Yikes, what is going on over there. That’s like two in a row

Was the other one Prime 4? If so I wouldn’t say that's two in a row.

I wonder who cancelled it, Bandai or Nintendo.

 

[Dr. Wilkinson]

Was the other one Prime 4? If so I wouldn’t say that's two in a row.

I wonder who cancelled it, Bandai or Nintendo.

Likely Nintendo, same as with Prime 4 attempt #1. I doubt Bamco would give up guaranteed income from a company like Nintendo, especially given their history and pedigree.

Not two in a row? Whats the other major first-party externally developed game since Prime 4 attempt #1 for Switch that Bamco was developing? Maybe I’m out of the loop.

 

[Woopah]

Likely Nintendo, same as with Prime 4 attempt #1.

Hopefully it was one early in development. Bandai established a whole studio to do Nintendo work there might be other work they can move on to.

 

[Fbh]

Is it still a hassle to quit when you are put in the please quit room or do they at least make it easy for you?

Are you still expected to write an apology letter ?

Giving people nothing to do would never work outside of Japan. Being paid to do nothing is one of the few pleasures I enjoy in life.

LoL yeah I was just thinking in my country almost everyone would be like
"Ohhh noooo I'm being sent to the room where I don't have to do anything and they still pay me!!"

 

[Dr. Wilkinson]

Hopefully it was one early in development. Bandai established a whole studio to do Nintendo work there might be other work they can move on to.

Or Nintendo dissolved it because it wasn’t going well. Would be a real shame. Been waiting a while for that rumored “3D action game” they commissioned Bamco for to be announced.

 

[Woopah]

Or Nintendo dissolved it because it wasn’t going well. Would be a real shame. Been waiting a while for that rumored “3D action game” they commissioned Bamco for to be announced.

Same, I wonder if that was this project or if it's something else.

 

[DeepEnigma]

From Software doing all the heavy lifting for them.

Get rid of that SBI tripe, or more bombs and lost revenue will continue.

 

[DR3AM]

Switch 2 hard to develop games on confirmed.

 

[Astray]

The focus on SBI in this thread is quite strange given that Bandai Namco is only publishing that game and had no part in its development.

The real reason for this is the failure of projects like Blue Protocol (which is a big-money GAAS game that bombed really badly). These are projects that had no western involvement, yet are bombing v.hard.

No need to give credit, they most likely just used a free paywall bypass, like so:

I don't like to take others' work without credit, even if it's meaningless or I could have done it, they saved me time and effort so they get thanked..

 

[StreetsofBeige]

I have to think that the SBI games we’re getting now are games that have been in the pipeline for a while. There’s just no way they can still be getting new contracts in 2024. The SBI name is fucking radioactive, its associated with several recent flops, and gamers hate it so much they’re actively going out of their way to identify and avoid their games.

Ya.

Woke-ish SBI games and movies in dev for years getting hammered with modern day sales in the toilet, you actually kind of can give them a break. Already in dev and unless they do a 180 this year needing more time and money to rework stuff, it might not be feasible. So just launch it and pray. And SBI is in the same boat with their website PR'ing what companies they do.

Whats more interesting is if companies (esp media ones who love DEI and Woke messages in their products, complete with employees shouting at people on Twitter) keep doing what they are doing riding the Titantic down, or they change for future products. You can have some of that in games and it'll be fine. BG3 has it. COD has free pride skins too. People still love the games since it's not jammed in your face like it's the focal point of the game.

If dude bro stuff like Top Gun Maverick years ago making big bucks, and modern year wokey TV, movie and game flops dont change them. Then nothing will. The data and consumer sentiment is right there in their face.

 

[Celcius]

Putting people in a room with no work tasks? And people are voluntarily quitting? People would be milking this for all it's worth in the US lol

 

[LRKD]

Bandai Namco freaking blows 90% of the time. Like how is it that there still isn't a Code Vein 2? Didn't that game do really well? Ace Combat 8 still is nowhere to be seen, and so many of their older games are basically abandoned on dead hardware, are collection ports really asking for too much? Oh but we can get infinite shovelware anime fighting games.

Honestly, more than anything I hope the shake up helps knock out some of the more western influence all Japanese devs have been being shackled by, and that Digimon makes it out okay.

 

[Unknown Soldier]

I have to think that the SBI games we’re getting now are games that have been in the pipeline for a while. There’s just no way they can still be getting new contracts in 2024. The SBI name is fucking radioactive, its associated with several recent flops, and gamers hate it so much they’re actively going out of their way to identify and avoid their games.

Game dev cycles are 5-6 years long at this point so yes you are seeing everything being made on a 5+years delay in terms of culture shifts

This is why Concord came out and belly flopped into the middle of this nonsense and became a high profile failure, it started dev around 6 years ago

 

[Smasher89]

Hmm, guess low chance for scarlet nexus 2 then, dont recall if it got good reception but it felt good enough to warrant a sequel.

 

[March Climber]

Blue Protocol ended up being a huge punch to the gut for Namco.

I think that team can still help another with gameplay and art design instead of being completely let go. They should simply never let them be in charge of a game.

 

[Generic]

Ya.

Woke-ish SBI games and movies in dev for years getting hammered with modern day sales in the toilet, you actually kind of can give them a break. Already in dev and unless they do a 180 this year needing more time and money to rework stuff, it might not be feasible. So just launch it and pray. And SBI is in the same boat with their website PR'ing what companies they do.

Whats more interesting is if companies (esp media ones who love DEI and Woke messages in their products, complete with employees shouting at people on Twitter) keep doing what they are doing riding the Titantic down, or they change for future products. You can have some of that in games and it'll be fine. BG3 has it. COD has free pride skins too. People still love the games since it's not jammed in your face like it's the focal point of the game.

If dude bro stuff like Top Gun Maverick years ago making big bucks, and modern year wokey TV, movie and game flops dont change them. Then nothing will. The data and consumer sentiment is right there in their face.

I don't know a single game where DEI stuff is the focal point, with the exception of Stardust.

Also, I think a game or a store opening with an ad for pride content during pride month counts as "jamming in your face".

 

[Fabieter]

Just stop doing sbi shit and you are save namco

 

[Astral Dog]

At least this masterpiece didn’t get canceled.

I was thinking why Bandai Namco was flopping since i believe they are a decent publisher, their new Dragon Ball game should do well, but i never heard of this one,then again neither Concord or that other Dead something, if not for GAF i wouldn't know these games exist

 

[Mister Wolf]

So they don't fund a Code Vein 2 when the original was a financial success?

 

[wvnative]

Any idea what the cancelled games were?

Mobile trash?

Naruto, One Piece, and a Nintendo partnership game

Likely more, but that's all we know of.

 

[StereoVsn]

Wrong. Half the people they wanted to leave, have quit.

Yeah, the statement was that severance will be cut because managers will write people up for only performing.

 

[YeulEmeralda]

This is scary.

Yeah just fire everyone before Christmas and don't give them any money America style.