Publisher tells Venture Beat that layoffs are a result of August restructuring, shifting development back to Japan.
Mass turnover has been a running theme throughout the back half of 2010 as companies have alternately shed staff to lower payroll costs or collapsed entirely under the weight of sagging game industry sales. Those affected by substantial staff reductions include Rockstar Games, Sony Online Entertainment, Firaxis, Realtime Worlds, Ubisoft, LucasArts, Robomodo, EA Canada, and Io Interactive.
Now, one more big-name publisher can be added to that steadily growing list. Venture Beat reports that it has confirmed with Namco Bandai that the studio has laid off 90 employees within its US division. The layoffs are reportedly related to Namco Bandai’s reorganization of its traditional game development and casual/mobile divisions in August.
Venture Beat reports that Namco Bandai has also decided to take a large portion of the game development work once done at its San Jose, California-based studio and move it to Japan. “We are partnering with external development studios out there because that is where the game business is going,” Namco Bandai VP of marketing Carlson Choi told Venture Beat. “Our goal is to move into digital games and broaden to different platforms. The details are being sorted out now.”
Namco Bandai had not responded to GameSpot’s request for comment as of press time.
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