Elden Ring publisher quietly cancels games, leaving fans heartbroken

Bandai Namco has just announced several game cancellations in light of its internal restructuring, much to the disappointment of gamers everywhere. This isn’t just the case of one or two titles on the chopping block but five of them.

Before anyone panics, this isn’t to say that Bandai Namco are going to mass cull all its games – titles like Elden Ring are too successful to warrant that. However, its anime-inspired titles in particular are taking heavy hits due to underwhelming performance.

Remember Naruto x Boruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm Connections? Few of us do because of how poorly received the game was, having been met with criticism over the use of AI voices and its questionable online multiplayer.

We're going to keep our spirits up by watching the Tekken 8 trailer.

Then there was Jujutsu Kaisen: Cursed Clash, another game that sounded brilliant on paper but proved a massive disappointment upon launch. In short, Bandai Namco needed to look at its future projects and determine what served its vision for its future. Its analysis led to the realisation that it needs to re-evaluate its intended releases with greater scrutiny.

Consequently, as many as five upcoming titles have been scrapped, according to IGN. What's been cancelled hasn’t been revealed, though we’re grateful to learn that highly anticipated content, such as the upcoming Elden Ring DLC, is unaffected.

Although fans are understandably sad about the news, there’s still a lot to look forward to from the publisher, such as Little Nightmares 3. What is more, Tekken 8, a game we believe “packs a punch”, has proven enormously successful for Bandai, thus showing that it's not all doom and gloom for the publisher.

All in all, it’s a catch-22 with this news. On the one hand, it’s sad to learn that games already in development have been axed, but on the flip side, it’s great that Bandai is putting all its energy into making other more popular franchises a greater success.