Gaming industry giant Bandai Namco canceled 5 games and reported that they’ll be changing their strategies for game releases following a massive drop in income. Read on to learn about the cancellations, their strategy, and what all this means.
Bandai Namco Reports 96.5% Drop In Income
Has Canceled Five Games As a Consequence
As reported by Video Games Chronicle, Bandai Namco reported in their financial results briefing that compared to the same period last year, they saw an almost 9% drop in net sales and a whopping 96.5% drop in income.
Despite the successes of Armored Core 6 and Shonen games like Dragon Ball and One Piece, they haven’t been able to replicate the same heights that Elden Ring was able to achieve in the last fiscal year.
In a Q&A with the company, this was confirmed by a Bandai Namco representative. “Disposal of work-in-progress was decided in accordance with internal rules regarding evaluation, and the online games and other products subject to this disposal were also implemented in accordance with these rules,” they explained. “We have also decided to discontinue the development of at least five other titles under development and have recorded a loss on disposal.”
Narrowing Down Released Titles
The representative went on to say, “In addition, since the second half of the previous fiscal year, 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.”
They further explained that the development times for games are now longer, and the time from investment to payback is also longer. Due to these, the company is considering the best way to “optimize our titles by classification, such as strategic worldwide titles and casual titles for light users.” To sum it up, Bandai Namco will focus on releasing less titles of better quality, rather than having a whole bunch of games being developed at the same time.
Despite the significant drop in profit, Tekken 8 has been, and continues to be very successful, already selling two million copies in less than a month since its release. It’s expected to continue performing well, repeating sales through to the next fiscal year.
Source:
Video Games Chronicle
