Change is afoot at Bandai Namco Holdings. They’ve announced a company-wide restructuring effort that extends from their film, toy and arcade lines to their videogame label, Bandai Namco Entertainment, owners of Pac-Man, Tekken, Soulcalibur, and Ace Combat, among others.
Effective from 1st April – no, I don’t think this is a very early April Fool’s joke, it’s a financial year thing – the reshuffle will involve “personnel changes at the departmental head level”, in the words of AnimeNewsNetwork.
Osamu Sarudate from the Bandai Namco Entertainment NE production department unit 1 will become executive officer of the card business division, while the card business division’s general manager Koji Tezuka is taking over the Gundam division, and Yuzuke Minagawa is now executive officer of the CX park business division. The company are also renaming or re-organising several departments and divisions.
As ANN recap, Sony agreed last year to buy 16 million shares in Bandai Namco for approximately $464.5 million – 2.5% of the company. Nintendo, meanwhile, announced in November last year that they would take over Bandai Namco Studios Singapore in a share transfer agreement. BNSS are a support studio who worked with Nintendo on the recent Kirby Air Riders.
Bandai Namco are among the companies who’ve cut back in the wake of the Covid stay-at-home boom period. They got rid of over 100 staff in the period April 2024 to February 2025, having cancelled several games in February 2024. In October that year, it was reported that management had essentially forced staff to quit by moving them into rooms where they had nothing to do. So far, no layoffs have been announced in the course of this week’s proposed restructuring.
