Recent Bandai Namco job listings point to the continuation of Tarsier Studios' hit horror franchiseLittle Nightmares. The second installment of theLittle Nightmaresseries released to critical acclaim in early 2021 and brought it to new heights.
Little Nightmaresdeveloper Tarsier Studios was acquired in December 2019 by an ever-expanding Embracer Group. WithLittle Nightmares 2still in production at the time under Bandai Namco publishing, the studio would be tragically ripped from the franchise after the sequel released in 2021, as Bandai Namco maintained ownership of theLittle NightmaresIP. After this separation, questions arose about the future of the franchise withTarsier Studios no longer being able to work on itunder Embracer Group.
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Recent Bandai Namco job listings on Linkedin and Games Jobs Direct call for an intern and a producer to specificallywork on theLittle NightmaresIP. With Tarsier Studios out of the picture, according to these listings, it seems like Bandai Namco Europe operating out of Lyon, France will be handling the development of the franchise moving forward.
One of the postings mentions “managing the product development from concept until release date” as one of the role’s responsibilities. This seems to indicate that the nextLittle Nightmarestitle is still in the very early stages of pre-production, if at all, and is likely years away from releasing. Tarsier Studios is a smaller team, made up of around 70+ employees as of 2022, and likely less whileboth highly praisedLittle Nightmarestitleswere being worked on. With a team of that size theLittle Nightmaresgames understandably took a long time to develop. Now that development of the franchise is in the hands of the much larger Bandai Namco Europe it’s possible that the turnaround of the nextLittle Nightmarestitle could be somewhat shorter.
Little Nightmares 2’s ending left the door openfor a third numbered title. While these job postings didn’t mentionLittle Nightmares 3specifically, it would be safe to assume that’s the direction Bandai Namco is going to take. Of course, there’s always the possibility of a spinoff happening instead. Tarsier Studios expanded the world ofLittle Nightmareswith the second installment, so a spinoff following other characters caught up in the grim world of the Pale City would make a lot of sense. With Tarsier Studios creating a new IP with Embracer Group that looks very similar to its past work on the horror franchise, and Bandai Namco Europe taking over development of the next installment ofLittle Nightmares,it looks likefans of the series and of horror games in general are about to have it really good.
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