Report: Namco Bandai of America Laying off 90
Namco Bandai of America is merging its mobile and online games units into one division and moving what VentureBeat calls "a considerable amount" of the development done in the California office back to the mother offices in Japan.
"We are partnering with external development studios out there because that is where the game business is going," said marketing VP Carlson Choi. "Our goal is to move into digital games and broaden to different platforms. The details are being sorted out now."
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I think these reports should stop. It is the game cycle. Peddle uphill all month and fly down next week. It is expected and although painful for those affected not exactly healthy news nor unexpected.
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Layoffs can be indicators of larger issues. They can give hints to canceled projects or tell us about releases that are flopping commercially.
This one in particular doesn't look at all like a "Game released, so it's time for the regular workforce reduction until the next project" layoff. It looks a lot more like Namco is having a rough time overall and this is a larger restructuring for the company.
Shack is a nice mix of consumer and industry news. I like end-user focused stuff being mixed in with business/industry stuff. Gives us a broader picture of what's happening in gaming overall.-
I am in the game industry, up to my neck in it and our company goes to help make these wonderful games so it is not a case that I am not aware of these layoffs nor wish to ignore them I just agree with Deathofrats - They should actually copy the movie industry and look at taking more freelancers on and keeping a slim workforce and expand when needed rather than go through these painful rides.
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