Namco Bandai is to axe 630 staff - roughly ten per cent of its workforce - due to "present conditions that include the current severe business climate and declining profitability".
The company's haemorrhaging money, having just reported a whopping £81.04 million loss for the nine months ended December 31, 2009. It expects the job cuts to reduce personnel expenditure next fiscal year by £24.25 million, which is a start.
"The Bandai Namco group generally faced an uphill battle in the first nine months of the fiscal year ending March 2010, during which market conditions for the group remained severe," the Japanese publisher said in a statement.
"In the Game Contents business in particular, sales fell below projections given weak market conditions for most of major home game software titles except Tekken 6, the largest title released in the current fiscal year, leading to weak results for the segment."
Tekken 6
Gameplay footage
1:14Gameplay footage #3
Tekken 6
Gameplay footage
1:14Gameplay footage #3
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Namco Bandai are the last company to be needing job cuts... They have the Gundam franchise for a start, which is one of the most profitable entities in Japan and is worth over 50 Billion JPY.
Namco have been lazy this gen, all their games are just rehashes with no new ideas. Konami would be in trouble too if it wasn't for MGS4. These Japanes companies have not evolved as fast as western developers. You look at cinematic games like Mass effect 2 and God of war 3 and they're in another league compared to what Japan is putting out. Capcom seem to be the only ones trying.
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