Bandai Namco bought the studio Reflector Entertainment, whose CEO worked on Assassin's Creed

Bandai Namco intends to expand through the purchase of Western developers. The Japanese company announced the acquisition of the studio Reflector Entertainment, co-founded by the former creative director of Assassin’s Creed. She is currently developing her first game Unknown 9: Awakening.

It is expected that the transaction will be closed in the fourth quarter of 2020, while the final amount has not yet been disclosed. To complete, companies will also need to get approval from Canadian regulators.

The purchase of Reflector Entertainment is the first step towards Bandai Namco’s new business strategy. Gradually, the publisher plans to move the production of half of its content outside Japan.

The co-founder of Reflector Entertainment is Alexandre Amancio, who previously worked at Ubisoft on Assassin’s Creed Unity and Revelations. After the deal with Bandai Namco, he will leave the post of CEO and become the chief creative director of the studio.

Now the team consists of 120 people who are working on their first game Unknown 9: Awakening. The developers note that the project is part of a multimedia franchise, which includes comics, books and podcasts.

The announcement of Unknown 9 took place at Gamescom 2020. Reflector Entertainment describes its debut project as follows: “In our game there is a multifaceted heroine who must accept herself. The action takes place in a world in which humanity is on the verge of self-destruction.”

Unknown 9 is scheduled for release in 2021 on PC, PlayStation and Xbox.

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