Bandai-Namco posts big losses for 2009, cuts 630 jobs

[Great Rumbler]

Tokyo-based Tekken maker Bandai Namco on Tuesday reported accelerating losses that the publisher plans to curb with the implementation of a "restart plan" beginning at the start of its next fiscal year in April.

The restructuring plan involves cutting nearly 10 percent of Bandai Namco's total workforce, or around 630 of its 7,000 total headcount. The company said the plan is in response to an "urgent" need to make the publisher more flexible and more profitable.

The job cut announcement came as Bandai Namco reported loss of ¥5.70 billion ($63.17 million) for the fiscal third quarter ended December 31, 2009. Quarterly revenues dropped to ¥110 billion ($1.22 billion) from ¥124.85 billion ($1.38 billion) a year prior.

Bandai Namco recorded a ¥11.74 billion ($129.88 million) loss for the first nine months of the fiscal year, versus income of ¥9.02 billion ($99.84 million) for the same period a year ago. Revenues for the period were down to ¥282.83 billion ($3.13 billion) from ¥315.65 billion ($3.49 billion).

Bandai Namco expects the headcount reduction to reduce personnel expenditure by about ¥3.5 billion ($38.72 million) in the coming fiscal year. Company-wide streamlining is expected to reduce costs by ¥8 billion ($88.5 million).

The company attributed the declining sales and profits during the nine months to "weak market conditions" for its home console games. Bandai Namco said it missed most of its console software sales projections, outside of Tekken 6, the latest in the company's long-standing fighting franchise.

For the full year, Bandai Namco revised its sales down to ¥380 billion ($4.2 billion), down from the previous forecast of ¥400 billion ($4.43 billion). Operating income projections were lowered to ¥1 billion ($11.07 million) from ¥15 billion ($166.02 million).

"Consolidated financial results show that the Bandai Namco Group generally faced an uphill battle in the first nine months of the fiscal year ending March 2010 (April 1, 2009 to December 31, 2009), during which market conditions for the Group remained severe," the company said in a statement.

Bandai Namco said it will also "bolster quality control in Japan" and carry on improvements into the company's Japan and U.S.-based Worldwide Studio, introduced in April 2009.

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/27061/Bandai_Namco_Cutting_630_Jobs_Amid_Mounting_Losses.php

[magus]

"bolster quality control in Japan"

scamco to continue fucking up oversea release confirmed

[Bebpo]

Damn, Graces bombed that hard. 

[MCD]

the idolmaster.

[Mr. Gundam]

In Japan? Taiko, Vesperia and the Gundam titles did pretty well.

In America? Ummm.... did any of their Wii sports-esque titles do anything?

[TripleA]

Not surprised at this news, almost all of their games failed to catch on big time.

[Howard Alan Treesong]

sucks to be Universe B Cohen

[archie4208]

If only they had made Wii games. :'(

[Mr. Gundam]

sucks to be Universe B Cohen

I was thinking the same thing.

[Third]

If only they had made Wii games. :'(

A main Tales of.. bombed hard on the Wii.
It's better to release big game for the Ps360. Vesperia sold better than Graces. And that with a much smaller install base.

[Great Rumbler]

If only they had made Wii games. :'(

A main Tales of.. bombed hard on the Wii.
It's better to release big game for the Ps360. Vesperia sold better than Graces. And that with a much smaller install base.

It's better, but still not all that great. The series has struggled since Abyss on the PS2 back in 2005.

[HyperZoneWasAwesome]

If only they had made Wii games. :'(

Klonoa was actually really frigging good.

(checks collection)

Whoa, that's the first Bandai/Namco game I've bought since last gen.

[Mr. Gundam]

I've got Gundam 0081, Gundam Musou, Gundam Musou 2, Gundam Crossfire, Katamari Forever, Soul Calibur IV and Eternal Sonata on the PS3. I have a METRIC TON of Bandai Namco titles on the PSP.

[Beezy]

Vesperia is the only Namco title I got this gen. I wonder how the Tales games would sell with a more serious looking anime style?

[Bebpo]

Vesperia is the only Namco title I got this gen. I wonder how the Tales games would sell with a more serious looking anime style?

 

[Mr. Gundam]

Wasn't there a Tales DS game that had two versions, one with anime cutscenes and one with CG cutscenes?

[EmCeeGrammar]

Looks like all that horseshit dlc scheming got them no where.  Capcom, Konami, and Nintendo are doing okay then I assume? Square enix had dragon quest 9 and final fantasy 13, so I guess they are good for this fiscal.

[magus]

Wasn't there a Tales DS game that had two versions, one with anime cutscenes and one with CG cutscenes?

yea and the cg model were ugly

[MCD]

Vesperia is the only Namco title I got this gen. I wonder how the Tales games would sell with a more serious looking anime style?

 

how is this yuck?

i'd kill for a tales rpgs with fma/darker than black look and not the usual deformed tales look.

then again you think graces art is better than vesperia, never mind.

[Beezy]

Vesperia is the only Namco title I got this gen. I wonder how the Tales games would sell with a more serious looking anime style?

 

how is this yuck?

i'd kill for a tales rpgs with fma/darker than black look and not the usual deformed tales look.

Exactly. I didn't mean anything like that ugly CG pic above.

[chronovore]

They have never transitioned from being a game company and an anime company into a conglomerate. Namco has always had meh characters and Bandai has never made a good game in its history, so I'd really hoped that they'd be able to take their anime properties and their game know-how and become something bigger. Instead we've seen that they can transition their old properties to new platforms, but not make current-gen games.

We should have seen this coming with Ridge Racer 5 or 6 or whatever, which wasn't even as enthralling as R4, and the dead-at-the-gate Frame City.

The Worldwide Studio is a disorganized, backward, defensive mess; hopefully they shoot it in the head and pull a full reboot, starting with the people managing it. I know a guy who put in over 5 years there who was laid off, I feel for him but he's going to be happier anywhere else. I know another guy who left there a couple years ago, who confirmed that it was every bit as toxic as it was when I quit 10 years ago (only after we shipped a game for them on which two teams had failed). The US studio is just wretched.

[Mr. Gundam]

Bizarro Cohen is wishing he'd gone into wine right about now.

[chronovore]

<_<
>_>

Dude, pull the ripcord!

[Bebpo]

Vesperia is the only Namco title I got this gen. I wonder how the Tales games would sell with a more serious looking anime style?

 

how is this yuck?

i'd kill for a tales rpgs with fma/darker than black look and not the usual deformed tales look.

then again you think graces art is better than vesperia, never mind.

You want a Tales game that looks like this:


Instead of this:


I dunno, I don't think a more "mature" look would work for Tales.  Tales sells on its animu image.  It is the de facto animu rpg franchise.  That's what the whole skit thing is about.  I don't think more realistic look would help.

[MCD]

no, i don't want that pig disgusting 3d.

i want the 2nd one just more dark and "taller" characters if that makes sense, no more colorful uguu.

not aiming for realistic here bebpo, just something like FMA or whatever, serious animu for serious kids.

[Bebpo]

But isn't that what Vesperia was?  Darker animu for kids?  They said they made Yuri a dark anti-hero and the cast older because they wanted to sell it to western audiences.

[Damian79]

Wii - 3.765m units of sw (9 games)
PSP - 3.351m units of sw (13 games)
DS - 3.083m units of sw (26 games)

PS3 - 2.015m units of sw (5 games)
PS2 - 1.798m units of sw (4 games)
X360 - 1.256m units of sw (5 games)

Others - 0.049m (1 game)

Stolen from Neogaf.  Holy shit they should really be blaming the DS.

[MCD]

But isn't that what Vesperia was?  Darker animu for kids?  They said they made Yuri a dark anti-hero and the cast older because they wanted to sell it to western audiences.

it is still plagued with tales shit, just look at that pinky girl next to him.

[Beezy]

But isn't that what Vesperia was?  Darker animu for kids?  They said they made Yuri a dark anti-hero and the cast older because they wanted to sell it to western audiences.

It's still in the same childish looking character designs and Yuri is only one character. Vesperia looks no different from Symphonia and Abyss. It's just in HD.

[Ichirou]

Wasn't there a Tales DS game that had two versions, one with anime cutscenes and one with CG cutscenes?

The CG version sells for half of what the anime version does nowaday at any retail store.

[chronovore]

Wii - 3.765m units of sw (9 games)
PSP - 3.351m units of sw (13 games)
DS - 3.083m units of sw (26 games)

PS3 - 2.015m units of sw (5 games)
PS2 - 1.798m units of sw (4 games)
X360 - 1.256m units of sw (5 games)

Others - 0.049m (1 game)

Stolen from Neogaf.  Holy shit they should really be blaming the DS.

Maybe. Or maybe they're just spamming the channel with cheap-to-produce "games" like everyone else?

[Cravis]

I'm still pissed about Tekken 6. I bought it for $60 and less than 2 months later I could have got it for $30 or the bundle with the stick for $50 off Amazon.

[chronovore]

I'm still pissed about Tekken 6. I bought it for $60 and less than 2 months later I could have got it for $30 or the bundle with the stick for $50 off Amazon.

Yeah, but you'd still be playing TEKKEN. I mean, c'mon. TEKKEN?

[WrikaWrek]

I'm downloading Tales, fuck it.

[GoofyGoober]

Besides tales what other games did the ship for the year? I see the gaf chart and it looks like almost 50 games. But what were they I don't recall anything other then Tales for 360/Wii

[cool breeze]

They're putting out Narudo shallow animu fighting game with glorious cel shading collecting scroll turd fest 2 for Xbox 360 and Playstation 3

[youtube=560,345]HWQqEQtJV68[/youtube]

[iconoclast]

Naruto UNS2 looks pretty decent; will rent or buy for <$20. I just hope it has a more substantial single player adventure this time around, as that was the main reason I liked the Ubi Naruto games.

cel-shading on PS3/360


Wait, UNS2 doesn't have online play? 

[Bebpo]

I just hope it has some goddamn AA this time.  That cell-shading is beautiful but the jaggies kill the IQ

[cool breeze]

yeah, no online play is hilarious.  Since that already fell through, the only other two huge things that need to be improved are loading times and anti-aliasing.  Single player needs a huge revamp too but in the past they've been good about expanding the single player with each iteration of the PS2 series.

The animation and visuals of the first game were still incredible even with the aliasing problems.

[Cravis]

Yeah, but you'd still be playing TEKKEN. I mean, c'mon. TEKKEN?

I might as well have just played Tekken 3. I swear I learned my lesson. The series has not evolved at all and the new characters just suck.