This year, the big game developers have been "throttling", and this has also affected some of the smaller game studios that rely on these big players to survive, including Tose Software, a long-established Japanese outsourced game developer that is now in financial trouble.
In its third-quarter earnings report, Dongxing Software said it had lost 367 million yen due to "changes in customer policies and other cancellations of projects." As a veteran outsourced game developer, Tostar Software's development team has provided outsourced development support for Nintendo, Square Enix, and Bandai Namco since the Nintendo FC era, producing works such as the GameBoy Game Museum series, a number of Dragon Ball games, and "Paper Mario", "Sprague 2", "Final Fantasy 7 Core Crisis", "Super Dancing Made by Valio", and "Dragon Quest Monster Wonderland 3: The Journey of the Demon Prince and the Elves" on Switch, only the "Legendary Staffee" series owns the copyright. Dongxing Software, which has been doing outsourced development, is even called a "ghost developer".
For the "cancellation project" mentioned by Dongxing Software, it is likely to come from Square Enix. Because Square Enix launched a new medium-term business plan this year, the number of game development projects has been reduced. Bandai Namco has also canceled at least 5 games in development. Undoubtedly, this also includes the outsourcing projects undertaken by Dongxing.