Bandai Namco is closing Reflector Entertainment, the Montreal studio behind Unknown 9: Awakening. Bandai Namco's board approved the plan on November 10 to dissolve and liquidate the studio, and the company expects to take a loss of about €21 million on it.
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Reflector only ever released one game. Unknown 9: Awakening came out in October 2024, didn't do well, and the studio has been shrinking ever since. This is the end of that road.
What Bandai Namco said
The news came in a formal notice from Bandai Namco Holdings. It says the company "continuously reviews its business portfolio and intra-Group developmental structure for its medium- and long-term growth," and decided to shut Reflector down after looking at "future business plans, necessary additional investment, and the possibility of profitability and business continuation."
In plain words: Bandai Namco didn't see a way for the studio to turn a profit without putting a lot more money in.
| Decision | Board approved dissolution and liquidation, November 10, 2026 |
| Expected loss | About €21 million, from Q3 of the fiscal year ending March 2027 |
| When it closes | "A concrete schedule is undecided as of now" |
| Owner | Bandai Namco Entertainment Europe (100%) |
| Staff affected | Not disclosed |
Bandai Namco says the loss amount and timing could still change depending on how the liquidation goes, plus tax and accounting. It didn't say how many people still work at Reflector, and the studio hasn't commented.
A short history of Reflector
Reflector was set up in Montreal in 2018 by Alexandre Amancio, a former Ubisoft creative director, and Bandai Namco bought it in September 2020. The plan was big. Unknown 9 wasn't meant to be just one game. It was supposed to be a whole universe with comics, books and more around it.
The game came first. Unknown 9: Awakening launched on October 18, 2024 on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PS4, Xbox One and PC. You played Haroona, voiced and played by Anya Chalotra, who a lot of people know as Yennefer from Netflix's The Witcher. Reviews were mostly weak, and it didn't sell the way Bandai Namco needed.
The shrinking started right away
About a month after launch, in November 2024, Reflector laid off as much as 18% of its staff.
Then in January 2025 it got worse. CEO Hervé Hoerdt posted on LinkedIn that the studio wouldn't go ahead with a project that was being worked out, and said the game's release "didn't warrant any further exploration in this universe." In other words, Unknown 9 was done. More redundancies followed.
At the time, Hoerdt said Reflector would move to a "single project approach," working on an existing Bandai Namco IP that he said was "shaping up very well." That new game never got announced. Now the whole studio is being wound down.
Part of a bigger pattern
This isn't just a Bandai Namco thing. Studios all over the industry have been closing or cutting staff for the last couple of years, and a lot of it comes down to the same thing Bandai Namco said here: big new games are expensive, and if the first one doesn't hit, there often isn't a second chance. This week alone, Sony also cancelled Fairgames, though Haven Studios is staying open.
Bandai Namco still has big series like Tekken, Dragon Ball and Elden Ring, which it publishes for FromSoftware. Reflector was a bet on a brand new world, and it didn't pay off.
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What happens to Unknown 9?
Nothing official on that. The game is still listed for sale, and Bandai Namco's notice doesn't mention pulling it.
And if you want to understand why so many studios end up here, Blood, Sweat, and Pixels by Jason Schreier goes behind the scenes on how hard and risky making games really is.
FAQ
Is Reflector Entertainment closing?
Yes. Bandai Namco's board approved dissolving and liquidating the studio on November 10, 2026. No exact closing date yet.
How many people work at Reflector?
Bandai Namco hasn't said. The studio already cut up to 18% of its staff in November 2024 and had more layoffs in January 2025.
What game did Reflector make?
Unknown 9: Awakening, released October 18, 2024. It was the studio's only game.
Sources
- Gematsu: Bandai Namco to shut down Reflector Entertainment gematsu.com
- PC Gamer: Bandai Namco is closing the studio that made Unknown 9 pcgamer.com
- Gameranx: Reflector ending Unknown 9 IP, layoffs (Jan 2025) gameranx.com
Written by the WIZY creator
A lifelong gamer and Warhammer painter, and the maker of the WIZY RPG game. I write about games, hardware, Warhammer and crypto in plain English, and I check every fact against its source.
