With its merger with Konami on the horizon, Hudson Soft is looking to downsize and restructure appropriately to make a shift towards a more casual product line. The makers of Bomberman had 100% of their stock bought up by the Japanese publisher this past January, the transaction expecting to finalize April 1st (April Fool’s Day has yet to permeate Japanese culture at this point). As part of the deal, Hudson’s North American branch is set to close up completely, with approximately 40 of its Japanese staff also set to be dismissed.