By setting “stricter standards” and “narrowing down titles”
The decision to cancel five games was made due to their “higher than expected” development costs and after being evaluated against the publisher’s internal rules for in-development titles, a Bandai Namco representative explained during a recent Q&A session following theirlatest financial results. (Thanks,VGC.)
On the more positive end of things, this year’sTekken 8is apparently faring well, shifting over two million copies and expected to see its popularity maintained for a while to come - helping the company’s next financials.
Still, Bandai confirmed that they had cancelled development of “at least five other titles”. As well as cutting down the number of games, the publishers said they were already working to increase the quality of future releases. As part of that, they are looking at focusing on games with more mainstream appeal for “casual” players alongside their big “strategic” releases.
“Since the second half of the previous fiscal year, we have changed our development structure, setting stricter standards for proceeding with development, narrowing down titles, and changing the method of recording development expenses” the rep said.
“Due to the longer development period for games, the time from investment to payback is also lengthening. In addition to narrowing down titles, we are considering the best way to optimise our titles by classification, such as strategic worldwide titles and casual titles for light users.”
Presumably that bottom line will be helped by the release of Elden Ring’s long-awaited DLCShadow Of The Erdtree, whichhad been rumoured for release later this month- around the game’s second anniversary - but may arrive further down the line ifBandai’s recent update that “there is no update”is to be taken at face value.
