Bandai Namco Studios staff silently reduced by over 100 people, Japan Pension Service database shows 

The number of staff at Bandai Namco Studios, the developer of Tekken 8, Scarlet Nexus and Blue Protocol, has decreased by 117 between April 2024 and February 2025. This is according to the online database of Japan’s Pension Service, which contains information on the number of people each business establishment has enrolled under their employee social insurance (in other words, the number of insured employees). 

Bandai Namco Studios′ company overview states that as of April 1, 2024, the developer counted 1,294 employees. On the other hand, the Japan Pension Service database (which was last updated on February 4, 2025) indicates that the number of employees is now down to 1,177. 

In October last year, Bloomberg reported that Bandai Namco Holdings allegedly placed 200 employees of Bandai Namco Studios in so-called expulsion rooms (or “oidashi beya”). Insiders alleged that this was done to coerce staff into resigning voluntarily. This action was reportedly a result of the discontinuation of several games run by the company, as well as the cancellation of ongoing development projects, including one for Nintendo. 

At the time, Bandai Namco explained that their staff may have to wait for some time before they get assigned to a new project. However, they denied using expulsion rooms to pressure people to resign, or other such unsavory business practices alleged by anonymous leak site LeakPress.  

Even though insider claims about oidashi beya were refuted, it seems that staff at Bandai Namco Studios was indeed silently reduced by over 100 people during the ongoing fiscal year.

On a related note, Bandai Namco Holdings recently announced that its online game subsidiary Bandai Namco Online will be dissolved and folded into Bandai Namco Entertainment as of April this year. Bandai Namco Online and Bandai Namco Studios co-developed the MMORPG Blue Protocol, which was prematurely shut down on January 18 and contributed to significant losses for the group.