Recent Bandai Namco job listings point to the continuation of Tarsier Studios' hit horror franchise Little Nightmares. The second installment of the Little Nightmares series released to critical acclaim in early 2021 and brought it to new heights.
Little Nightmares developer Tarsier Studios was acquired in December 2019 by an ever-expanding Embracer Group. With Little Nightmares 2 still 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 the Little Nightmares IP. After this separation, questions arose about the future of the franchise with Tarsier Studios no longer being able to work on it under Embracer Group.
Recent Bandai Namco job listings on Linkedin and Games Jobs Direct call for an intern and a producer to specifically work on the Little Nightmares IP. 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 next Little Nightmares title 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 while both highly praised Little Nightmares titles were being worked on. With a team of that size the Little Nightmares games 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 next Little Nightmares title could be somewhat shorter.
Little Nightmares 2's ending left the door open for a third numbered title. While these job postings didn't mention Little Nightmares 3 specifically, 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 of Little Nightmares with 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 of Little Nightmares, it looks like fans of the series and of horror games in general are about to have it really good.