Bandai Namco and developer Reflector Leisure introduced it has determined to not greenlight work on a “future mission.” Within the launched assertion, the studio’s CEO and Bandai Namco Leisure Europe CCO Herve Hoerdt confirmed that is as a result of “failure” of Unknown 9 Awakening. This additionally leads to layoffs for the studio.
Bandai Namco and Unknown 9 Awakening dev Reflector introduced cancelation
Unknown 9 Awakening launched on PS5 again in October 2024. It obtained combined evaluations at launch, garnering a 59 on overview combination website Metacritic.
In a assertion, Hoerdt says the mission was at present within the conceptualization part. Additionally they state that persevering with the mission won’t be “sustainable for the way forward for the studio.”
“This resolution correlates straight with the failure of the studio’s bold and brave first mission, a brand new IP with a wealthy transmedia universe,” says Hoerdt. “The efficiency of the discharge didn’t come close to the corporate expectations, after quite a few timeline changes and funding, each financially and different, and didn’t warrant any additional exploration on this universe.”
“Sadly, this additionally impacts back-office workers, bringing the assist groups consistent with the only mission method the studio will undertake for the approaching future,” Hoerdt continues.
A number of the folks engaged on the canceled mission might be moved to a different mission based mostly on an current Bandai Namco IP. Whereas that mission was not particularly named, Hoerdt did remark that it’s “shaping up very nicely.”
These affected by redundancies might be supplied with an “enough” severance bundle, prolonged well being advantages for each workers and their household, continued entry to counseling companies, and profession planning assist.
Though Unknown 9 Awakening didn’t meet Bandai Namco’s expectations, the assertion concludes by saying they are going to proceed creating Western content material.
Bandai Namco reportedly canceled “a number of” video games again in October 2024, two of which had been based mostly on the Naruto and One Piece franchises. It was additionally reported workers was decreased within the course of.
