According to a new report by Teikoku Databank, bankruptcies among Japanese game companies that develop and run mobile games have seen a sharp rise. Just between January and July 2026, a total of 10 such bankruptcies were recorded, far exceeding the total of three bankruptcies seen throughout all of 2025. Given this pace, the industry is likely to see a new record-high number of annual bankruptcies by the end of 2026, surpassing 2015 (when 12 mobile game developers went under).
This news comes fresh on the heels of a rather controversial bankruptcy announcement – at the end of July, Tokyo-based developer Ambition, who had been running the live-service game Bungo Stray Dogs: Tales of the Lost for nine years, suddenly announced that the game would be ending services only a day later. Moreover, the company said it would be refusing to refund players for unused in-game currency and paid items, garnering backlash. It was later revealed that the company had simultaneously filed for bankruptcy.
Even with titles based on popular IPs with generous marketing campaigns, mobile game developers are finding it increasingly difficult to create and sustain hits. As some of the reasons for this, Teikoku Databank cites the growing complexity expected of the genre (such as 3D graphics, full voice acting, etc.) and a chronic shortage of creators domestically, which often push initial development costs into the hundreds of millions of yen.
Post-launch operations are also a challenge, as continuing to release new content is likewise costly for developers and can become difficult to sustain amidst a shrinking player base. The report also cites the fierce competition from high-budget hits coming from China and South Korea as a factor, the quality and scale of which many Japanese developers believe is difficult to reproduce domestically within the industry’s current conditions.
