Report: Bandai Namco Laying Off Hundreds of Employees; One Piece and Naruto Games Canceled or Paused

Bandai Namco is reportedly laying off hundreds of employees and has either canceled or paused development on several games. This news comes as a surprise, given the recent strong sales of Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero, which sold over 3 million units in just 24 hours and had a launch day player count surpassing 120,000 concurrent players.

As reported by Bloomberg (paywalled), Bandai Namco is allegedly using a tactic known as “Oidashi beya” or “expulsion rooms” to pressure employees into resigning voluntarily. In these rooms, employees are reportedly given little to no work-related tasks, while knowing that poor performance could be used as grounds to reduce severance when they leave. Many employees often use this time to look for other jobs. So far, about 200 employees have been moved to these rooms, with around 100 having already resigned.

However, a Bandai Namco representative denied these claims, stating:

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.

Alongside the layoffs, Bandai Namco has reportedly canceled or suspended development on several titles, including a game commissioned by Nintendo and two major projects tied to the One Piece and Naruto franchises.

These developments coincide with the cancellations of Blue Protocol and Tales of Rays, raising more questions about the company’s future. With so many layoffs and projects being halted, it remains to be seen how Bandai Namco plans to recover.

While these reports have yet to be fully confirmed, layoffs are never a good thing to see within our industry, but they’re also unavoidable given the ever-changing landscape. We here at MP1st wish the best of luck to those affected by the layoff, and hopefully, they’ll be able to quickly land back on their feet.

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