Bandai Namco has recently revealed that it has canceled five games that were currently in development, along with changing its development structure.
In a recent earnings report, Bandai Namco stated that it has revamped its criteria for evaluating the quality of its games internally and that has lead to the cancelation of five games that were in development, per IGN’s own translation. Bandai explained that is now has stricter rules on which games get to proceed in development, as games have become more expensive and costly to make.
Bandai Namco also said that it is still working on Elden Ring DLC and is planning more games for the Dragon Ball series. On a post-earnings call, Bandai Namco explained that the company’s disappointing financial results to underperforming games. One of them is most likely Blue Protocol, an MMORPG that Bandai partnered with Amazon Games as its publishers. It was released in Japan last year, but still hasn’t made its debut in other territories.
On a brighter note, Bandai Namco revealed that Tekken 8 sold over 2 million copies, and expects the game to contine selling until the next fiscal year.
Bandai Namco currently has other projects in store for 2024, including Little Nightmares 3 and Sand Land. The Dark Pictures Anthology: Directive 8020 and Dragon Ball: Sparkling! Zero don’t have release dates just yet.
George Yang is a freelance writer for IGN. He’s been writing about the industry since 2019 and has worked with other publications such as Insider, Kotaku, NPR, and Variety.
When not writing about video games, George is playing video games. What a surprise! You can follow him on Twitter @Yinyangfooey
