Unknown 9: Awakening studio lays off major staff just one month after the release of the game

Reflector Entertainment, owned by Bandai Namco and released its debut game Unknown 9: Awakening a month ago, announced that it would be laying off 18% its staff to "efficiently achieve our most pressing goals while ensuring that every member of our teams can meaningfully contribute" to its ongoing projects.

Reflector said that the layoffs were not driven by "commercial successes or external pressures," rather, it was simply because there isn't enough work at the moment to support the studio's current size.

Marc-Andre Seguin, general manager of Game Developer, wrote: "With Unknown 9 Awakening's recent release and our two main production lines in the early stages of development we must ensure that our staff are laser-focused on contributing their skillsets to the projects which wholly benefit from them." "As a result, we are reducing the team by 18% of Reflector’s total workforce. This decision impacts people who aren't currently assigned to roles required for our active projects."

Unknown 9 Awakening didn't make a great impression when it was launched in October. It was a good game in the pre-release preview, but the Steam rating is "mixed". The peak concurrent player count for the platform has dropped to just 285. We don't know the console numbers, but the game has not fared much better on other platforms. It holds a 59% aggregate Metacritic score.

The number of people who have lost their jobs has not been specified. However, Reflector's LinkedIn profile indicates that it has between 51 and 200 employees, as well as 145 "associated" members, i.e. LinkedIn users who list Reflector, Inc., as their current employer.