Redundancies at Namco Hometek as unnamed project is dropped

Namco Hometek, the US subsidiary of Japanese publisher Namco, has cancelled another of its internal projects and laid off a number of staff, but has refuted rumours that it is closing its entire US development operation.

The dropped project was apparently one which hadn't yet been announced to the public, but it joins a number of other titles which have been cancelled by the California-based division in the past twelve months - including First Strike and Plague of Darkness.

The team working on the project was made redundant as a result of the cancellation, but Namco has denied rumours that it is shutting down its US internal development operation entirely.

"Namco Hometek recently made the decision to discontinue one of its internally-developed products," the company confirmed in an official statement issued to the media last night, "resulting in the need to eliminate the positions of people assigned to the project. No other areas of the company were affected."

"Namco Hometek's commitment to internal product development remains intact," the statement continued, "and continues to be an integral part of Namco Hometek's strategy for growth and success in the US market."

The firm is currently working on a sequel to Xbox and PS2 action title Dead to Rights, as well as a new title called The Adversary.