Bandai Namco released their third quarter earnings report on Feb. 14, revealing that they canceled five in-development games to focus on higher quality titles after a significant drop in revenue.
The report, which was translated by VGC, showed that sales for the company’s digital division dropped by 8.9%, with a 96.5% drop in income. The main reason for this drop was the massive success of Elden Ring last year. Though titles like Armored Core 6 and One Piece Odyssey have performed well, they did not have a title that matched their success in the previous year.
The earnings report also mentions a “loss on disposal” due to a review of in-development titles, suggesting that some may have been canceled. This was confirmed by a representative in a Q&A after a financial results briefing.
“Disposal of work-in-progress was decided in accordance with internal rules regarding evaluation, and the online games and other products subject to this disposal were also implemented in accordance with these rules,” they said. “We have also decided to discontinue the development of at least five other titles under development and have recorded a loss on disposal.”
According to the representative, they intend to focus on a smaller amount of higher-quality titles with stricter standards going forward, as development times have significantly increased. They are also working to optimize the types of titles that they release, with a mix of large titles with global appeal and light, casual experiences.
“In the future, we will build an optimal and well-balanced title portfolio, examine our development system carefully, and strengthen development with an emphasis on quality,” the report says.
The representative also noted that Tekken 8 was not included in the fiscal year, and is already performing better than expected at over 2 million copies sold. They also confirmed that they were working on “large-scale downloadable content” for Elden Ring, which may be releasing soon, along with a new game based on Dragon Ball.