Bandai Namco has axed at least five games in development.
Bandai Namco has axed at least five games in development
The firm announced the move in a recent finance report, saying its digital division saw a 8.9 per cent drop in sales alongside a 96.5 per cent drop in income over the last year.
It added they “recorded a loss on disposal” due to its studio “discontinuing the development of at least five other titles under development”.
Bandai also said the decision to scrap those titles was taken “in accordance with internal rules regarding evaluation”, adding it is looking to “build an optimal and well-balanced title portfolio” and will be “carefully” examining their development system.
It said: “We will strengthen development with an emphasis on quality.
“We have changed our development structure, setting stricter standards for proceeding with development, narrowing down titles, and changing the method of recording development expenses.
“The associated technical research expenses for this were higher than expected at the beginning of the year.”
Bandai’s success stories have included ‘Elden Ring’, which was released in February 2022 and went on to sell over 20.5million copies, but the studio has been unable to replicate its popularity.
It added: “Due to the longer development period for games, the time from investment to payback is also lengthening.
“In addition to narrowing down titles, we are considering the best way to optimise our titles by classification, such as strategic worldwide titles and casual titles for light users.”
But Bandai said the recent release of ‘Tekken 8’ is already proving a financial success, adding: “As for the line-up of titles under development, we are preparing large-scale downloadable content for ‘Elden Ring’, and a new ‘Dragon Ballgame’, so please look forward to these titles.”