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Unknown 9: Awakening
GRTV News - Reflector Entertainment met with layoffs
The creator of Unknown 9: Awakening is cutting its workforce by 18%.
Audio transcription
"Hello everyone and welcome back to another episode of GRTV News. Today we're going to be talking a little bit about layoffs unfortunately. We've actually gone through a bit of a stint where we haven't talked about them as frequently as we did at the start of the year, but one of the developers of a more recent game has now been hit with layoffs, pretty much due to the fact that the game that they recently debuted has not sold as much as expected."
"That title is called Unknown 9 Awakening. It's developed by a studio called Reflector Entertainment, which is owned by, or has its game published by Bandai Namco. Following the arrival of the game, which hasn't exactly landed to thunderous applause should we say, the studio has been hit with layoffs and around 18% of the staff are being released from their role. So let's dive on in and take a look. Unknown 9 Awakening developer Reflector Entertainment has been hit with layoffs. The game sold a lot less than expected, which probably has contributed to the studio now letting 18% of staff go. So there was definitely nothing wrong with the ambitions for Unknown 9 Awakening, but the game unfortunately felt rather unfinished at the time of its release and was also criticised for an unresponsive combat system. This undoubtedly contributed to the game not selling as expected and now Reflector Entertainment, the studio behind the game, has announced that it will lay off 18% of its workforce. The decision is said to be part of a restructuring to focus on new projects and affects all parts of the developer, although we're not given a specific figure on how many will be let go. Still, the studio owned by Bandai Namco seems to be standing firm at least and is now working on two new games that hopefully won't be impacted by this. We're keeping our fingers crossed that everyone affected by the layoffs is managing the best they can and Reflector Entertainment says it's offering support. You can read our review of Unknown 9 Awakening here."
"So yes, Reflector Entertainment is facing layoffs, the latest of which to be hit with layoffs. 18% of the staff, nearly a fifth of all the employees at the company being released from their roles.
And the tough thing about layoffs as well is if the game like this, which would have spent years making and a fair bit of money to make, it's not quite, I wouldn't say it's quite AAA, but it's definitely in the AA sort of category. If it does continue to sell below expectations, it's probably not the next time we'll hear about layoffs. We have to hope that this isn't the case and that the studio won't have to sort of, you know, pause or cancel one of its two projects to cut costs, but generally speaking, that's how things tend to go in such a tough financial climate for game development. As Jonas said in the piece, the game itself, Unknown 9 Awakening, it had grand ambitions and they did some really creative things in regards to the multimedia approach for its narrative and its world building, including releasing comics and podcasts and all these different things. But the game itself was a bit flat in places. You know, as Jonas says, particularly in a combat system that felt like it wasn't quite, or didn't quite nail what it was supposed to be doing, should we say. So, you know, it had its quirks and its issues and likely that contributed to, in part, to the lower sales than expected. But again, you know, hopefully this won't be affecting the studio much more in the future and they can continue now on whatever the future holds for Reflector Entertainment and hopefully they'll be able to get something out the door a little bit quicker because Unknown 9 Awakening was in development for quite a long time and faced a few different delays along the way. But again, as we hear more about this, we'll be sure to keep you posted and updated. And yeah, basically that's all the time that we have on today's episode of GRTV News, but I will be back now tomorrow for the next one of the week, so stay tuned for that."
"And otherwise, yeah, thank you for watching and we'll see you then. Take care, everyone."
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