Japanese gaming giant Bandai Namco quietly cut 100 staff last year

Japanese game publisher Bandai Namco secretly reduced its employee headcount by over a hundred staff members despite shrugging off reports that it was dismissing some employees by sending them to rooms without projects to work on.

Recent data from Japan’s Pension services data confirmed that 117 employees left Bandai Namco between April 2024 and February 2025.

Bandai Namco reduces its workforce in 2024 after canceling projects

"Namco is reducing staff by sending workers to rooms where they are given nothing to do, putting pressure on them to leave voluntarily.

100 staff have already left"

We REALLY need to teach the Japanese Slacker Culture because they're killing themselves to impress shit bosses. https://t.co/TrDiTi0a6q pic.twitter.com/hdTUWhN4dG

— miiyauwu | 🟦☁️@miiya.page (@PearlteaRizzy) October 15, 2024

Japanese Publisher was rumored to have used a traditional Japanese measure, “oi dashi beya,” to encourage workers to leave their workplaces voluntarily last year. The recent pension services report does not clarify under what circumstances the employees left the company, and the data did not reveal which projects the staff members worked on before departure. 

Bloomberg reported that the company was cutting its workforce late last year after canceling several projects. The report also noted that employees were not being directly cut off but were sent into rooms without projects to work on. The practice “Oidashi beya” is said to pressure employees to leave voluntarily without the need for severance pay. 

Such practices are common in Japan due to the strict labor laws, which make it difficult for employers to lay off their workers. Employees are said to use the rooms to job hunt before leaving their stations.

The report also indicated that approximately 100 employees had resigned by October 2024, hours after Bandai announced that Dragon Ball Sparkling Zero had sold 3 million units in the past 24 hours. 

Bandai Namco denied using such rooms, at the time. A representative from the company stated that their decision to discontinue games was based on comprehensive assessments of the situation. He added that some employees needed to wait a certain amount before being assigned their next project.

However,  the figures from Japan’s Pension Service notably aligned with the report. Bandai Namco changed its game lineup in the three quarters towards December, causing 21 billion Yen in writedowns. 

The publishing company also revealed it had canceled the Japan-only MMORPG Blue Protocol in August 2024. The developers announced on the game’s website that it would not be possible for the company to provide a service that satisfied all its gamers. 

The developers also shared their disappointment that they could not deliver the games to players worldwide. They added the Japanese servers would remain online until Saturday, 18th January 2025. 

In June 2024, Bandai reported that Bandai Namco’s online game-focused subsidiary had recorded a net loss of 8.201 billion yen during the 2023-2024 financial year. The net income reportedly led the company to insolvency after Blue Protocol’s launch. 

Bandai lays off workers after insolvency reports in 2024 

The October report also revealed that Bandai had stopped the production of several titles, including games based on franchises such as Naruto and One Piece. The publisher was also said to have ceased its contract project with Nintendo. Bandai also announced the shutdown of the Mobile game Tales of the Rays last year.

Bandai Namco’s published “ Unknown 9 franchise” was also canceled in January 2025. Developer Reflector Entertainment’s boss, Herve Hoerdt, revealed that the game did not meet expectations. 

The statement came months after employees who worked on Unknown 9:Awakening reported layoffs. The game developer noted that the job roles lost during the layoffs included marketing, narrative, and quality assurance. Unknown 9:Awakening was launched in October to mixed reviews. The game was said to have a mixed rating on Steam, with less than 100 players rating it.

The layoffs at Bandai come amid reports by other publishers, such as FromSoftware, of raising their base salary in Japan. The publishers stated that from April 2025, they would pay new graduates 300,000 yen, an 11% increase from their previous base pay. 

The publisher added that the move was part of Japan’s strategy to attract more talent and innovation to the tech industry.

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