Namco Bandai To Cut Over 600 Jobs

Sorry if old.

Found this in Kotaku.

By March 2010, Japan's Namco Bandai estimated that net income was going to be ¥8.5 billion ($93 million) in the black. That figure has changed from profit to loss — a big loss at that.

The company now estimates that it will be posting ¥31 billion ($342 million) loss this March.

To counteract these losses, Namco Bandai has announced it will undergo a restructuring. By the end of the 2010 fiscal year, Namco Bandai is planning to reduce its 7,000 person workforce by 630 staffers.

The decline in earnings is blamed onpoor performance of key titles.

Which key titles to be blamed??

Tekken 6 (Multiplatforms)

Tales of Grace (Wii)

Tales of VS (PSP)

Tales of Vesperia (PS3 port)

What do you think??

Tekken 6 and Tales of Vesperia PS3 aren't to blame. Tekken has sold like 2 million copies already between the two versions and will only sell more as time goes on and the PS3 port of Tales of Vesperia sold like 1/3 of a million in Japan alone. Tales of grace on the other hand has only sold like 200K which is pretty bad for new tales game on the most popular system in Japan, not sure about Tales of VS though. In summary I think Namco Bandai should maybe lay off the tales series for a while (they seem to be milking it a bit) and maybe instead they should focus on some other games.

I believe it's the games they released on the Wii.XenogearsMaster

So a port of Tales of Grace to PS3/360 confirmed??

Their fault. They made alot of stupid decisions lately. Tales of Vesperia was a 360 exclusive, it sold really bad, especially in Japan where the 360 community is almost non existant. Then they waited a year before releasing the PS3 version in Japan, which made the sales suffer due to it being delay, even if it sold better than on the 360. After that they never released the game in US/PAL, I can't understand this at all since the 360 version was already translated and all they had to copy the translation off that one for the PS3 US/PAL version. They would atleast have made some profit, but no, they didn't bother for some strange reason.

Tekken 6 wasn't anything special either. They delayed it far too long (was announced as a PS3 launch title) and that killed the hype alot. Add subpar reception from reviewers and the release of SF4 to the list of problems with Tekken 6.

Then they made Tales of Grace on the Wii, to a very casual community, it sold bad and all of these problems add up to their position right now.

Unfortunately Tales of Graces is probably a big contributor to this.

Sucks, because its a fantastic game.

Tekken 6 and Tales of Vesperia PS3 aren't to blame. Tekken has sold like 2 million copies already between the two versions and will only sell more as time goes on and the PS3 port of Tales of Vesperia sold like 1/3 of a million in Japan alone. Tales of grace on the other hand has only sold like 200K which is pretty bad for new tales game on the most popular system in Japan, not sure about Tales of VS though. In summary I think Namco Bandai should maybe lay off the tales series for a while (they seem to be milking it a bit) and maybe instead they should focus on some other games.

St_muscat

Actually no......

HD devleopment + Marketing is SSSSSSSOOOOOOOOO expensive it's absolutely ridiculous! Tekken 6 across both the X360 and PS3 probably at the minimum cost 20 million to make, then you add in the marketing, shipment, storage, shelf space costs, it can easily folds upward to 40 million copies sold! And that = you can sell over 2 million, and you would STILL be facing a lose on the game! That's how ridiculous it can get.

Tale of Graces may have sold 200K, but remember Wii games takes A LOT less to make than the HD twins, and depending on marketing cost (and most Wii games receive little if any marketing cost), 200K maybe enough to break even, if not the game already started to earn some money for Namco! Even if its at a lose, the lose probably is no where near the other game. Tale of VS is the big one.....It never was that big to begin with, porting it to PS3 add the cost to the original game. Whether Namco made the money back is another question entirely.

Namco-Bandai was making money on the Wii from the financial report. Tales of Grace is still selling. Last time I check, it was still in the top 50 selling list of Famitsu report. That means it might have long leg.

Tekken 6 and Tales of Vesperia PS3 aren't to blame. Tekken has sold like 2 million copies already between the two versions and will only sell more as time goes on and the PS3 port of Tales of Vesperia sold like 1/3 of a million in Japan alone. Tales of grace on the other hand has only sold like 200K which is pretty bad for new tales game on the most popular system in Japan, not sure about Tales of VS though. In summary I think Namco Bandai should maybe lay off the tales series for a while (they seem to be milking it a bit) and maybe instead they should focus on some other games.

St_muscat

[QUOTE="XenogearsMaster"]I believe it's the games they released on the Wii.lcw0810883

So a port of Tales of Grace to PS3/360 confirmed??

Namco-Bandai was making money on the Wii from the financial report. Tales of Grace is still selling. Last time I check, it was still in the top 50 selling list of Famitsu report. That means it might have long leg.

nchan

its called Karma, *cough tales of vesperia 360 version cough *the-obiwan