{"id":48043,"date":"2025-05-16T11:52:15","date_gmt":"2025-05-16T02:52:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=48043"},"modified":"2025-05-16T12:16:24","modified_gmt":"2025-05-16T03:16:24","slug":"japanese-gacha-game-studio-asks-100-full-time-employees-to-quit-in-large-scale-downsizing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/japanese-gacha-game-studio-asks-100-full-time-employees-to-quit-in-large-scale-downsizing\/","title":{"rendered":"Japanese gacha game studio asks 100 full-time employees to quit in large-scale downsizing\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Japanese mobile game developer <strong>KLab, <\/strong>known for Bleach: Brave Souls and Captain Tsubasa: Dream Team,<strong> <\/strong>announced on May 15 that it will be asking around 100 employees to accept voluntary redundancy to urgently increase cash flow and &#8220;improve its&nbsp;cost structure\u201d (as reported by <a href=\"https:\/\/gamebiz.jp\/news\/405742\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">GameBiz<\/a>). The company has been running at a loss for the past three fiscal years.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.klab.com\/jp\/about\/company\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">its company overview<\/a>, KLab currently has a total of 389 employees, meaning that it\u2019s looking to let go of 1\/4 of its workforce. In the fiscal year ended March 2025, KLab actually saw revenue from its games grow by 3.4% (with Bleach: Brave Souls recently celebrating over 100 million downloads), but continued to see losses across all profit metrics. A big contributor to this was EA Sports FC Tactical, KLab\u2019s collaboration with Electronic Arts, which has been delayed way past its original global release window.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1276\" height=\"717\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1276px) 100vw, 1276px\" src=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/20250515-48043-001.jpg\" alt=\"Bleach: Brave Souls by Klab \" class=\"wp-image-48047\" srcset=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/20250515-48043-001.jpg 1276w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/20250515-48043-001-380x214.jpg 380w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/20250515-48043-001-768x432.jpg 768w\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Before deciding to let go of employees, KLab attempted to cushion losses by reducing outsourcing costs and <a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/bleach-brave-souls-developer-becomes-next-japanese-company-to-reduce-executive-pay-due-to-poor-financial-performance\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">cutting executive payrolls<\/a>, but has now resorted to \u201cshifting to a smaller organization of elite players in order to drastically improve cost structure.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>KLab hopes to cut around 100 jobs by as early as June 30, 2025. Employees who step up to accept voluntary redundancy will receive severance packages, with their resignations treated as \u201cinitiated by the employer.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While mass or on-the-spot layoffs are rare in Japan due to strict labor laws, there has been an increasing tendency of companies downsizing through employee buyouts \u2013 particularly among mobile game developers. Last year, Final Fantasy Brave Exvius developer <a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/layoffs-hit-japan-as-final-fantasy-brave-exvius-developer-asks-80-employees-to-voluntarily-resign\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Gumi let go off 80 employees in this way<\/a>, and web3 game developer Enish <a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/another-japanese-game-company-is-asking-staff-to-voluntarily-quit-their-jobs-amidst-financial-losses\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">asked an undisclosed number of staff to resign<\/a>.&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>KLab currently has a total of 389 employees, meaning that it\u2019s looking to let go of 1\/4 of its workforce.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":48046,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[261,17],"class_list":["post-48043","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-financial-news","tag-japan-related-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Japanese gacha game studio asks 100 full-time employees to quit in large-scale downsizing\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Japanese mobile game developer KLab is asking a fourth of its workforce to leave through buyouts to improve its financial situation.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/japanese-gacha-game-studio-asks-100-full-time-employees-to-quit-in-large-scale-downsizing\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Japanese gacha game studio asks 100 full-time employees to quit in large-scale downsizing\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Japanese mobile game developer KLab is asking a fourth of its workforce to leave through buyouts to improve its financial situation.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/japanese-gacha-game-studio-asks-100-full-time-employees-to-quit-in-large-scale-downsizing\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"AUTOMATON WEST\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-05-16T02:52:15+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-05-16T03:16:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/20250515-48043-header.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"879\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"494\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Amber V\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@AUTOMATON_ENG\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@AUTOMATON_ENG\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Amber V\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Japanese gacha game studio asks 100 full-time employees to quit in large-scale downsizing\u00a0 - 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