Bandai Namco quietly quits on five games

Bandai Namco has confirmed it recently cancelled at least five games in development.

• READ MORE: ‘Tekken 8’ review: from zero to hero

In a recent financial report, Bandai Namco confirmed that its digital division saw a 8.9 per cent drop in sales alongside a 96.5 per cent drop in income over the past twelve months.

Speaking about the results [via VGC], the company said they “recorded a loss on disposal” due to the studio “discontinuing the development of at least five other titles under development.” The decision to scrap those titles was taken “in accordance with internal rules regarding evaluation.”

Bandai Namco went on to say it’s looking to “build an optimal and well-balanced title portfolio” and will also be examining their development system “carefully”.

“We will strengthen development with an emphasis on quality,” they added. “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 Namco also explained that a big chunk of that drop in income is due to the success of Elden Ring, which was released in February 2022 and went on to sell over 20.5million copies, with the studio unable to replicate its popularity with other titles.

“Due to the longer development period for games, the time from investment to payback is also lengthening,” they continued. “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.”

However, Bandai Namco added that the recent release of Tekken 8 is already proving to be a financial success. “As for the lineup of titles under development, we are preparing large-scale downloadable content for Elden Ring, and a new Dragon Ball game, so please look forward to these titles.”

Last week, FromSoftware said it was “working hard” on an expansion for Elden Ring but still hasn’t confirmed a release window.

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