Bandai Namco subsidiary and Unknown 9: Awakening developer Reflector Entertainment has canceled an in-development project and laid off a number of staff following what it calls the "failure" of its first game.
In a LinkedIn post, Reflector CEO Herve Hoerdt says he's "made the decision not to greenlight further work" on a project that was in the "conceptualization phase", thus "terminating this development line". In layman's terms, that effectively seems to mean he's canceled an ongoing development project.
Hoerdt puts the cancellation down to the "failure" of Reflector's "ambitious and courageous first project", which he describes as a "new IP with a rich transmedia universe". He is, of course, referring to Unknown 9: Awakening, which is Reflector's first (and, to date, only) game.
The CEO goes on to admit that Unknown 9: Awakening "didn't come near the company expectations" with regards to sales performance, and that the world of the game doesn't "warrant any further exploration" as a result.
He says that the canceled project continuing "would not have been sustainable" for Reflector, but that it will result in "redundancies", although he doesn't state how many.
Going forward, Hoerdt says Reflector will work on a single project at a time, an approach that's also been espoused by the likes of Rime developer Tequila Works (although that company's insolvency puts the future of said project into question in that case).
Reflector is currently working on a game "based on an existing Bandai Namco IP", and Hoerdt says development on that project is "shaping up very well", although naturally, he doesn't say what it might be.
News of the Reflector layoffs, and of Unknown 9: Awakening's failure, comes shortly after Bandai Namco increased its sales projections for the 2024-25 fiscal year as a result of Elden Ring expansion Shadow of the Erdtree's strong performance.
The company has also recently enjoyed success with fighting game Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero, which managed to top three million sales in a single day.
As for Unknown 9: Awakening itself, you can, if you're so inclined, check out the action adventure game right now on PC, PlayStation, and Xbox. For what it's worth, our reviewer Erren was decidedly less negative about it than many.
