LogInOne of the projects was commissioned by Nintendo.
Bandai Namco
Bandai Namco has reportedly been cutting costs by letting go of its workers and canceling games. As shared by Automaton, according to the online database of Japan's Pension Service, the number of employees dropped from 1294 in 2024 to 1177 in 2025 – it's a decrease of 117 people.
The way the company tries to get rid of its workers is rather peculiar: Bloomberg says that Bandai Namco sends people to oidashi beya, or "expulsion rooms," where they have nothing to do and might leave voluntarily.
Since April of 2024, affiliate Bandai Namco Studios Inc. has moved about 200 to such rooms, and nearly 100 have resigned and more will likely do the same in the future, sources report.
"Employees are typically given no work-related tasks, but are left with the knowledge that their performance will give managers ammunition to cut severance when they do leave. Many employees use their time in such rooms to look for other jobs," Bloomberg explains.
Aside from this, Bandai Namco has abandoned several games, including Blue Protocol, some titles that feature characters from Naruto and One Piece, and a project for Nintendo.
The company confirmed cancelations but denied the existence of oidashi beya:
"Our decisions to discontinue games are based on comprehensive assessments of the situation. Some employees may need to wait a certain amount of time before they are assigned their next project, but we do move forward with assignments as new projects emerge," a representative of Bandai Namco said. "There is no organization like an ‘oidashi beya’ at Bandai Namco Studios designed to pressure people to leave voluntarily."
Bloomberg also mentioned an anonymous website that claims that Bandai Namco is using various methods to persuade people to leave, but the company says the information is not true.
In other news, Google has presented a "voluntary exit" program to let employees quit and receive benefits.
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