Bandai Namco has reportedly let go of quite a few staff members in Japan. Over 100 people have been affected. It’s wild to think about how this impacts the company and the games we all love.
According to Automaton, a recent filing on Japan’s online pension database reveals that between April 2024 and February 2025, 117 employees exited. What’s particularly concerning is that it doesn’t specify if these departures were voluntary or not.
Last year, Bloomberg reported that Bandai was taking a rather harsh approach to managing its workforce. They were said to put workers in rooms with no tasks at hand, basically leaving them hanging until they chose to leave voluntarily. Talk about stress!
This practice, known as Oidashi Beya, isn’t something new in Japanese workplaces but still feels harsh when we’re talking about people’s livelihoods. They want employees to feel so uncomfortable that they’d prefer quitting instead of facing an official exit process.
Add onto this the news from last year that Bandai had halted production on multiple titles, including games tied to *One Piece* and *Naruto*. They even scrapped a project with Nintendo. That’s some serious stuff!
But hey, it’s not all doom and gloom! On a brighter note, Bandai Namco’s latest release, Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero, has been crushing sales records. The game has already surpassed a whopping 5 million units sold worldwide.
This makes you wonder what direction Bandai Namco is heading in. With layoffs and canceled projects looming over them, can they keep up this momentum? Only time will tell!
