Bandai Namco has announced that it is shutting down Unknown 9: Awakening developer Reflector Entertainment. The closure comes following the 2024 release of the game across PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S, and since then, the studio was supposed to work on more projects that would be based on IPs owned and licensed by Bandai Namco.
In its announcement, the company has also revealed that Reflector Entertainment was suffering from constantly declining profits, with the last fiscal year signifying its biggest drop in profits. The company has said that it “continuously reviews its business portfolio and intra-group developmental structure for its medium- and long-term growth and to enhance corporate value.”
“After comprehensively considering future business plans, necessary additional investment, and the possibility of profitability and business continuation, [Bandai Namco] has decided to discontinue Reflector’s business, dissolve and liquidate it.”
While liquidation procedures have been started, Bandai Namco hasn’t yet offered a concrete timeline for when it will be completed, and it essentially comes down to local laws being followed. As for how Reflector’s closure might impact Bandai Namco’s business going forward, the company has said that it expects a loss of approximately €21 million for the third quarter of the fiscal year ending on March 31st, 2027.
“The amount stated here is an estimate based on information currently available. The actual amount of the loss and the timing of its posting are currently under review. Moreover, the amount of the loss and the timing of its posting may change depending on future procedures of the dissolution and liquidation, as well as tax and accounting treatment, etc. When matters needing to be disclosed arise going forward, the company will promptly disclose them.”
Bandai Namco had acquired Reflector Entertainment all the way back in 2020. The studio was relatively young at the time, having been officially founded in 2016, and was going to work on projects that would be set in a multimedia universe dubbed “Storyworlds”. This multiverse would have involved books, comics, and podcasts. Unknown 9: Awakening – the studio’s one and only game – was going to be one of the entries in Storyworlds.
Unknown 9: Awakening was released to mixed reviews, with its Metacritic aggregate score sitting at 59. Player sentiment, however, seemed to be much more negative, with its user score sitting at 2.0. In our own review, we gave it a score of 7 out of 10. While we praised its well-written characters and detailed environments, we criticized its repetitive encounter designs, enemies, and bugs that pop up during fights that could disable your ability to jump.
The story of Unknown 9: Awakening revolves around a Quaestor, Haroona, who was born with the ability to travel into a mysterious dimension that seems to overlap with the real world. She has to use this ability on her epic quest to gain some hidden knowledge. However, her unique abilities also make her the target of a splinter faction that calls itself the Ascendants, who seem to have their own plans for this mysterious dimension.
