继今年8月合并Namco Bandai Games America和Namco Networks America两家美国公司后，日本游戏公司Namco Bandai近期又宣布其美国工作室裁员90人。

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据了解，本次人事变动与之前的公司重组有关，当时Namco Bandai将其在美国的手机与在线游戏业务合并成了同一个部门。为此，Namco Bandai决定将原本打算在美国加州圣何塞完成的相关游戏开发业务，迁回日本本土制作完成。

Namco Bandai美国的市场营销副总裁卡尔森·崔（Carlson Choi）确认了这一裁员消息，但并未透露削减岗位的准确数字和具体原因。

他表示，公司仍致力于为用户开发易操作、社交化、个性化的游戏，并计划融入不断发展的电子游戏领域，但具体执行策略仍处于制定阶段。他称做出本次裁员决定，是因为公司的业务需求与职员技能并不相称，“我们正与外部开发工作室合作，这也是游戏行业的发展趋势，我们的目标是向电子游戏进军，向多个平台扩展……”

该公司8月份的业务重组颇为引人关注，因为整个游戏行业也正掀起一波巨变，包括THQ、育碧（Ubisoft）、华纳兄弟（Warner Bros）在内的其他公司，也都不约而同地增加了自己的电子游戏业务比重。

因为可以采用不同的商业模式，电子游戏一时间受到热捧。掌机游戏售价高达60美元，但在线游戏通常提供免费体验，玩家可以免费下载玩游戏，只需为更高级的装备等虚拟商品付费。这就为因经济危机而钱包缩水的玩家提供了更多控制开支的选择，据称美国艺电（Electronic Arts）公司现在约35%的业务都是电子游戏。

另外，Namco Bandai团队将针对掌机、个人电脑、互联网和苹果iOS产品等开发跨平台游戏，全力以赴在社交游戏市场闯出一片天地。Namco Networks首席运营官Kenji Hisatsune曾于8月份表示，将两个公司合为一体，主要用意在于开发更具跨平台特色的游戏，扩大公司游戏的用户规模。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译）

Namco Bandai to lay off 90 employees in the U.S.

As it combines two divisions and moves toward more external game development, Namco Bandai of America is laying off 90 employees in its U.S. offices, VentureBeat has learned.

The layoffs are due to the company’s previously announced reorganization where it combined two different mobile and online game businesses into a single division. On top of that, the company has decided to move a considerable amount of game development that was once done in the San Jose, Calif.-based office back to Japan.

Carlson Choi, vice president of marketing at Namco Bandai of America, confirmed that the company had layoffs in an interview. But he did not say how many jobs were cut or the exact reasons.

Choi said the company remains focused on making its games more accessible, social, and personal to consumers. It plans to participate in the growing part of the digital game business, but is still crafting its exact strategy. The cuts were made, Choi said, because the company did not have an exact match for the company’s needs and the skills of the employees available.

“We are partnering with external development studios out there because that is where the game business is going,” he said. “Our goal is to move into digital games and broaden to different platforms. The details are being sorted out now.”

The reorganization announced in August was notable because of the changes sweeping through the game business. Other companies such as THQ, Ubisoft, and Warner Bros. have all made moves to increase their digital games businesses recently.

Digital games are catching on because they use different business models. Console games sell for $60. But online games are often offered free-to-play, where players can play for free and pay real money for virtual goods such as better weapons. That gives recession-hit gamers more options to control their spending as they go. Roughly 35 percent of Electronic Arts’ business is now digital.

Under one label, the Namco Bandai team will develop games that run on multiple platforms, including consoles, the PC, mobile, the web and Apple iOS operating system products. The team will make a concerted effort to expand its presence in the social game market. The goal of having one group is to make games more accessible across more devices and to broaden the company’s consumer base, Kenji Hisatsune, head of Namco Networks, told us in August.（source:venturebeat）