2 years after Unknown 9: Awakening bombed, Bandai Namco is closing the studio that made it
Reflector Entertainment had a new game in pre-production, but Bandai decided it wasn't worth the time or money to pursue.
Two years ago, the release of Unknown 9: Awakening marked the end for Bandai Namco's Reflector Entertainment studio. The decision to shut down the studio was announced by Bandai Namco, citing the need to dissolve and liquidate the subsidiary due to future business plans, additional investment requirements, and profitability factors.
Unknown 9: Awakening, starring Anya Chalotra as a woman who can travel through a mysterious dimension called the Fold, showed promise in its pre-release preview, drawing inspiration from Xbox 360 games of the late 2000s. However, the full game received a poor reception, with a month of poor sales leading to the layoff of 18% of Reflector's workforce.
A few months later, another round of layoffs occurred after another project was cancelled. Reflector's CEO, Herve Hoerdt, acknowledged that the failure of the studio's first project directly contributed to the decision to lay off staff. Reflector confirmed the end of operations in a LinkedIn post, stating that after evaluating the progress of their latest pre-production project and considering current market conditions, Bandai Namco could not justify further investment in the studio.
The liquidation process is expected to be completed once all local legal procedures are fulfilled, but a specific timeline has not been set.
Written by urgent.news from PC Gamer's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
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