Bandai Namco is closing Unknown 9: Awakening developer Reflector Leisure.
In a press briefing, Bandai Namco said that “after comprehensively contemplating future enterprise plans, essential further funding, and the opportunity of profitability and enterprise continuation,” it has determined to dissolve and liquidate Reflector.
The writer expects to “publish a unprecedented lack of roughly €21 million” for Reflector in its Q3 monetary outcomes for the fiscal 12 months ending March 31, 2027.
Bandai Namco acquired Montreal-based Reflector in 2020 for an undisclosed sum. It additionally acquired the studio’s subsidiary, Reflector Interactive Productions.
Reflector was founded in 2016 by Alexandre Amancio and Lune Rouge.
Reflector is understood for the 2024 action-adventure title Unknown 9: Awakening. It was created as a transmedia franchise, together with a podcast audio drama, novels, and a comic book e book sequence.
A month after launch, the studio introduced it had cut 18% of its workforce.
The studio attributed the layoffs to a brand new growth part, stating that affected workers weren’t assigned to roles its energetic tasks wanted on the time.
Additional redundancies occurred in 2025 after the choice “to not greenlight” an unannounced challenge. The studio also cancelled the Unknown 9 franchise due to low sales.
Reflector CEO Hervé Hoerdt acknowledged that Unknown 9 didn’t meet expectations “regardless of quite a few timeline changes and investments.”
“This choice correlates immediately with the failure of the studio’s formidable and brave first challenge, a brand new IP with a wealthy transmedia universe.”