Video games publisher Bandai Namco has been culling both projects and staff due to "lackluster demand". That's according to a new report from Bloomberg, citing anonymous sources "familiar with the matter".
According to the report, Bandai Namco's approach to reducing staff is not to make them redundant, but to force them into leaving voluntarily. This "traditionally Japanese" method involves assigning people to rooms with no work-related tasks, where the staff members typically use their time to find other work before quitting.
Known as "oidashi beya" in Japan, this essentially means a company can avoid paying severance and steer clear of legal proceedings from fired employees making use of Japan's robust labour protection laws.
Bandai Namco has refuted that this practice is occurring in a statement to Bloomberg. "Our decisions to discontinue games are based on comprehensive assessments of the situation," it reads. "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."
The industry has faced an alarming number of job losses throughout this year and last, with many notable publishers and developers affected by a downward trend after the huge spike brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. During this period, many businesses grew rapidly, and the after effects have resulted in significant redundancies.
According to Bloomberg's report, Bandai Namco has sent 200 employees into those aforementioned rooms, resulting in about 100 resignations. The report's sources say more are expected to leave "in the coming months".
Game projects cancelled include ones featuring anime such as Naruto and One Piece, as well as a joint project with Nintendo.
This report comes as the publisher celebrates the success of Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero, which has sold 3 million copies in its first 24 hours.
[source bloomberg.com]
Comments 35
Lackluster demand, yeah right...
What a disgusting practice
Japan’s lack of worker rights is downright crazy. Cannot even imagine being a young worker over there, no wonder the rates of burnout are through the roof.
It is a thing. Been going on a long time. But before people revolt, it's close to impossible to fire people in Japan unless they have acted very egregiously. Labour law works almost too well here where you have MNCs that have less than 2% attrition. You might not like it but a lot of the people that are placed into these oidashibeya are completely non-productive and wouldn't survive in a meritocracy.
@nessisonett Japan has some of the most protective labour laws in the world. It's almost impossible to fire someone. The type of companies you're referring to are called burakkukigyo (black companies) and they are subject to harsh penalties. Is the system perfect? No. But if a company wants to fire you for no reason, 6 - 12 months of severance pay is pretty standard.
“Lackluster demand”? Isn’t Bandai Namco well within the top five most popular game companies? Although it seems like lately they make games off whatever fad anime is popular at that moment…
EDIT: I’m not talking of course about Dragon Ball or One Piece. Those are anything but fads and have an incredible and long histories.
This reeks of corporate greed.
@NapoleonDynamite Having such a thing as severance pay and strong unions to actually look after the interests of workers is far superior to the way that Japanese conglomerates overwork and undervalue staff.
@LavenderShroud I wouldn't even say they are in the top 5 in just Japan. Sega, Capcom, Square Enix, Nintendo and Konami are higher, I'd even throw Koei Tecmo in front of them.
So, constructive dismissal. Gotcha.
By the article, companies bolstered up the work force during the height of the pandemic so they hired all these people. Everything grew proportional. Now they're shaving off the excess they hired because the height is over...
Sounds like these companies --Bandai Namco-- also need to taper down their expectations. The demand is not down, it just might be down in comparison to when everyone was staying home and gaming. Their expectations can't stay inflated like they were during the height. What nonsense. All I hear is greed and it blows my mind how easily things are considered "a flop" nowadays.
@LavenderShroud Sir I must protest your use of the word fad when speaking about Dragonball. I'm a 35 year old child that still rewatches DBZ on an almost annual basis
George Constanza jobs.
@Blaze215 Oh! I’m not bad mouthing Dragon Ball by any means! I’m a huge fan of it with my brother. I meant things like Kaisen or things that just suddenly pop up out of nowhere and have an immediate massive fan base. I like things like Dragon Ball because they’ve been around longer and had to work to build up reputations. But that’s just me personally.
@NapoleonDynamite Yes. It’s a basic universal right.
Honestly I doubt this report is true mainly because it doesn't make sense from what we've know from Bamco.
Most projects aren't directly handled by Bandai but rather by other developers. Naruto is mostly handled by CyberConnect2, One Piece is handled by a myriad of studios, DB is handled by Dimps/Spike Chunsoft and so on.
Bandai is mostly a publisher, the only few devs they have work with outsourcing from other studios such as Nintendo.
@CielloArc Bandai always gave me one of those “too big to fail vibes”, not saying that they can’t make flop games, but in a sense they’ll suddenly face big financial problems. At least in their games department.
@LavenderShroud Lol only kidding I'm a big fan of Dragonball z too. Not so much super tbh
Great. There goes my last spark of hope for Ridge Racer 8
Somebody please take the anime it's away from Bandai.
I'm now worried that a potential Code Vein sequel could be cancelled
BANDAI NAMCO, you want to know why there’s lackluster demand for games based off anime property?
Because you guys keep dropping mediocre anime arena fighters.
Lol another article blaming COVID and not the absolute dogpoo state of the industry as of late, flop after flop.
Publisher becoming too complacent and not only not giving the consumers what they want, but also spitting in their faces with unfinished, uninspired games as an insult.
This has nothing to do with COVID anymore. It's the same crap with Hollywood. People are tired of the pandertainment, low quality trash
I feel like Bamco’s been on a bit of a roll recently, so this is extra concerning.
@nessisonett I'm an American and I don't understand your words.
That's disappointing. I liked they were one of the few publishers still willing to make smaller projects.
I really enjoyed Gundam SD Battle Alliance and Captain Tsubasa. I know they are not huge sellers, but i was hoping to see sequels. they are really enjoyable games.
I’m in a big international company and I have seen this practice. People reaching more than 10 years of activity are progressively pulled away from teams and put in roles of “senior director of something” but in practice they are doing absolutely nothing and are totally isolated and alone. Some quit, some stay like that for years before retiring. In any case I don’t find it good for mental health.
This report seems pretty hard to believe, especially after Bamco games like Tekken 8, DB Sparkling, Tales of Arise, Elden Ring etc etc did well worldwide.
Bamco financial report shows they're in great condition with profits increased 56% for Q1 FY25.
https://www.gamesindustry.biz/bandai-namco-profits-rose-56-during-q1-fy25
Again, i always take Bloomberg report with a grain of salt especially when they used anon sources.
Put you in a room with no work to do! Where do I sign up. Whenever these story’s about layoffs come up I always think about when the fall guys developer did lay offs. They had 3 writers on staff!!! Now that’s a good job, 3 full time workers to do the job what one person could do in an afternoon
@hi_drnick Getting fired for no reason and getting only 6-12 months is disgusting. In the Netherlands you can get fired but is has to have reason to start with.
@NEStalgia Apropos of nothing, I used to think this was the more adult site in terms of the general comment sections compared to NLife. Except over there on the equivalent of this article, they’re actually talking about the practice of oidashibeya and how loneliness is weaponised. What I’ve realised is that this maybe was a more adult, nuanced site 5 years or so ago but having an older readership has pushed it into sort of brain-worm territory over the years with nowhere near enough younger readers to fill the void. So now we have 50 year old men stuck in a rut chatting absolute bollocks. That can’t continue, you need that influx of new users.
@nessisonett From the US perspective, though, we can only envy oidashibeya. Here, if you're old, you're done. You can work at an Amazon warehouse, the world has no more use for you. Ironically it's like your comment on the young but for the inverse reason. In the US, only the young have value. Everyone else is expendable. The young champion this, seemingly ignorant they won't be forever young.
@NEStalgia I’d say we take our rudimentary workers rights for granted in the UK but it did come with decades of struggle and is currently under threat by yet more men in suits!
@get2sammyb not if u count that last naruto storm game it was terrible the original story could've been made into a movie for significant less money and done better as well
The Japanese have their own culture and are free to do as they please. Not everyone has to do things like the anglos. I know many people in my home country would love some type of grace period before randomly getting axed.
From the perspective of a successful businessman like myself, this sounds like a fine practice. Time waits for no one and the priority is to keep the cash flowing in, so from time to time you have to dump the chumps. A new round of temps will be waiting at the doorstep the next morning, and for less cost usually.
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