Bandai Namco has announced a 31 billion yen loss for fiscal 2009, after previously predicting 8.5 billion yen in profits; the company announced its intent to sack almost 10% of its 7,000 strong workforce to stem the flow of red ink, some 630 people.
Explaining the losses, Bandai blamed it in particular on its gaming division (but also on its failing amusement facilities and the cost of sacking its more useless employees):
Especially regarding our game content division’s console titles, our biggest title for the period, “Tekken 6,” met expectations, but amidst a depressed market our other major titles underperformed, causing these adverse results.
Suspicions soon fell upon its latest Tales release:
Tales of Fantasia – 249,000 (SNES ’95)
Tales of Destiny – 829,000 (PS ’97)
Tales of Eternia – 669,000 (PS ’00)
Tales of Destiny 2 – 763,000 (PS2 ’02)
Tales of Symphonia – 323,000 (GC ’03)
Tales of Rebirth – 596,000 (PS2 ’04)
Tales of Legendia – 343,000 (PS2 ’05)
Tales of the Abyss – 556,000 (PS2 ’05)
Tales of the Tempest – 206,000 (DS ’06)
Tales of Innocence – 246,000 (DS ’07)
Tales of Symphonia – 212,000 (Wii ’08)
Tales of Vesperia β – 203,000 (360 ’08)
Tales of Hearts – 259,000 (DS ’08)
Tales of Vesperia – 338,000 (PS3 ’09)
Tales of Graces – 189,000 (Wii ’09)
Possibly remaking the same game a dozen or more times is not such a wise strategy after all. Wii owning Tales fans might also be wary of participating in a paid beta-test for Tales of Graces’ presumed PS3 release.
Of course, none of this can explain a 40 billion yen (450 million dollar) drop in profits.
Not even Idolm@ster helped out? (Though I did hear after the initial sales boom for Ryou’s penis, Dearly Stars sold poorly due to lack of content… only about 7 playable songs and a severe lack of clothing choices.)
Come on BaNam, we need a new Im@s game with more songs and DLC…
Hah, u deserved it for releasing half-arsed games. Stick to Tekken and be done with it :p
f♥♥k Tekken.
They could release hemhem XENOSAGA, as a re-release of the trilogy, and actually attempt to sell it like Final Fantasy
The legend will never die
Nanco is already dead.