Bandai Namco Studios has reportedly reduced its staff by more than 100 people within the last year, as reported by Automaton.
The studio, known for Switch games such as New Pokémon Snap, Taiko no Tatsujin: Drum ‘n’ Fun!, and the upcoming Pac-Man title Shadow Labyrinth, had stated in a company overview on 1st April 2024 that its workforce stood at a total of 1,294 employees, however the Japan Pension Service database has this at 1,177 as of 4th February 2025.
This news comes after reports in 2024 that Bandai Namco had cancelled a number of projects, including one commissioned by Nintendo.
According to the initial article from Bloomberg, the company had allegedly used ‘oidashibeya’ – expulsion rooms – to pressure 200 employees into voluntary resignation. Effectively, they would be provided with meaningless work in an effort to demotivate them. Many employees would instead use this time to look for work elsewhere.
Although this is supposedly a traditional Japanese approach to reducing staff numbers, Bandai Namco denied that this was the case. It remains to be seen, then, whether the 100+ employees who have now left had done so “willingly”, or were let go with severance.