Square Enix Undergoes Mass Layoffs As It Reorganizes to Consolidate Development in Japan

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Square Enix Undergoes Mass Layoffs As It Reorganizes to Consolidate Development in Japan - IGN

Square Enix has announced mass layoffs today, potentially impacting over 100 individuals, alongside a broader effort to consolidate its publishing organization and focus its development work in Japan.
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Over 100 workers in the UK and an unknown number in the US are expected to be impacted.

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Square Enix is undergoing mass layoffs today, potentially impacting over 100 individuals, alongside a broader effort to consolidate its publishing organization and focus its development work in Japan.

Via public posts from former employees as well as confirmation from internal sources, IGN has learned that employees in the UK and US are being informed of the layoffs today, with an unknown number of US employees being dismissed by the end of the week, and a possible 137 jobs at risk in the UK. Under UK law, Square Enix must undergo redundancy consultations to see if any jobs can potentially be saved, so the final number in the UK could be smaller. It is not yet clear which teams were impacted by this, or to what extent.
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I think it was kind of inevitable given the string of absolute misses and years-long restructurings that happened with the Western divisions. A lot changed since Eidos and Crystal Dynamics left the roost. Sucks, but hey - everyone loses their job in the western games industry at some point these days!
 
Consolidate Development in Japan

cage GIF
 
Well they have been doing a really crappy job and for some reason SE have been always taking the most awful financial decisions in the recent years, or are we going to forget when they sold IP to finance NFT when we all knew they where are a scam that didnt work?

Hopefully this brings them on the right path, but Im not so sure about it, there are hacks like Yoshi-P that are treated like all knowing gaming gods.
 
nial said:
Square Enix Europe is not a Japanese company, though. Being okay with this is super weird.
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Then let me clarify: I do not give a fuck about, and have not played, a single game they were responsible for since 2016. I'd rather SE bring back Parasite Eve, Chrono Trigger, Vagrant Story, Brave Fencer Musashi, or Bushido Blade and spend whatever's left on a thousand zipper-laden wardrobes for Tetsuya Nomura.

The Square Enix Europe Catalog from 2016 On:
Deus Ex: Mankind - 2016 < - This is the one I played.
The Turing Test - 2016
Life Is Strange: Before the Storm - 2017
The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit - 2018
Shadow of the Tomb Raider - 2018
Life Is Strange 2 - 2018
Just Cause 4 - 2018
Battalion 1944 - 2019
Marvel's Avengers - 2020
Outriders - 2021
Life Is Strange: True Colors - 2021
Circuit Superstars - October 2021
Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy - 2021
Life Is Strange Remastered Collection - 2022 Deck Nine Games SE External Studios [153]
Hitman Sniper: The Shadows - 2022
Arena Battle Champions - 2022
PowerWash Simulator - 2022
Little Goody Two Shoes - October 2023
Life Is Strange: Double Exposure - 2024

cHiXeYLVzKygwlKB.gif
 
I don't have a problem with this at all. Everything around their western output has been crap lately, and that includes their collaboration like with the story concept + writing for Forspoken being the worst part of the game.

I liked Octopath Traveler 2 more than any of their output from their western studios combined in the 2020s.
 
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Omnipunctual Godot said:
Then let me clarify: I do not give a fuck about, and have not played, a single game they were responsible for since 2016. I'd rather SE bring back Parasite Eve, Chrono Trigger, Vagrant Story, Brave Fencer Musashi, or Bushido Blade and spend whatever's left on a thousand zipper-laden wardrobes for Tetsuya Nomura.

The Square Enix Europe Catalog from 2016 On:
Deus Ex: Mankind - 2016 < - This is the one I played.
The Turing Test - 2016
Life Is Strange: Before the Storm - 2017
The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit - 2018
Shadow of the Tomb Raider - 2018
Life Is Strange 2 - 2018
Just Cause 4 - 2018
Battalion 1944 - 2019
Marvel's Avengers - 2020
Outriders - 2021
Life Is Strange: True Colors - 2021
Circuit Superstars - October 2021
Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy - 2021
Life Is Strange Remastered Collection - 2022 Deck Nine Games SE External Studios [153]
Hitman Sniper: The Shadows - 2022
Arena Battle Champions - 2022
PowerWash Simulator - 2022
Little Goody Two Shoes - October 2023
Life Is Strange: Double Exposure - 2024

cHiXeYLVzKygwlKB.gif
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those two are good enough
 
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Anyone who works for a Japanese company in the UK is an idiot. All those years of Honda scaling back production and laying off their non Japan workforce should show you what happens each time the country or company has a wobble.
 
Omnipunctual Godot said:
Then let me clarify: I do not give a fuck about, and have not played, a single game they were responsible for since 2016. I'd rather SE bring back Parasite Eve, Chrono Trigger, Vagrant Story, Brave Fencer Musashi, or Bushido Blade and spend whatever's left on a thousand zipper-laden wardrobes for Tetsuya Nomura.

The Square Enix Europe Catalog from 2016 On:
Deus Ex: Mankind - 2016 < - This is the one I played.
The Turing Test - 2016
Life Is Strange: Before the Storm - 2017
The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit - 2018
Shadow of the Tomb Raider - 2018
Life Is Strange 2 - 2018
Just Cause 4 - 2018
Battalion 1944 - 2019
Marvel's Avengers - 2020
Outriders - 2021
Life Is Strange: True Colors - 2021
Circuit Superstars - October 2021
Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy - 2021
Life Is Strange Remastered Collection - 2022 Deck Nine Games SE External Studios [153]
Hitman Sniper: The Shadows - 2022
Arena Battle Champions - 2022
PowerWash Simulator - 2022
Little Goody Two Shoes - October 2023
Life Is Strange: Double Exposure - 2024

cHiXeYLVzKygwlKB.gif
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Square Enix Europe has nothing to do with what Square Enix Co., Ltd. decides to produce. BTW, there are tons of good to great titles there, Little Goody Two Shoes is a better game than some of the RPGs SQCL has produced, lol.
 
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nial said:
Square Enix Europe has nothing to do with what Square Enix Co., Ltd. decides to produce.
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Why would Square Enix Europe dictate what its parent company produces? I never said that, it makes no sense.
nial said:
BTW, there are tons of good to great titles there, Little Goody Two Shoes is a better game than some of the RPGs SQCL has produced, lol.
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Enjoy whatever you like. I think the move toward layoffs and a shift to Japan speaks for itself.
 
The funniest part is the firings can't happen in the place that needs them the most: Square Enix HQ.

Easily the most incompetent management team in gaming, like even Xbox or Ubisoft manage to find some meagre-to-medium Ws every year.
 
Omnipunctual Godot said:
Why would Square Enix Europe dictate what its parent company produces? I never said that, it makes no sense.
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Saying that you would rather SE do this or this rather than maintaining their European game production business makes no sense, this will not necessarily result in them allocating more resources into SQCL in comparison to what they're doing now.
Omnipunctual Godot said:
Enjoy whatever you like. I think the move toward layoffs and a shift to Japan speaks for itself.
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There is not shift happening because SQE is still operating as usual, you're just advocating for layoffs happening in order to up their margins.
 
nial said:
Saying that you would rather SE do this or this rather than maintaining their European game production business makes no sense, this will not necessarily result in them allocating more resources into SQCL in comparison to what they're doing now.
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Again, you're not making sense. SE Europe/Limited is a subsidiary of Square Enix, which means it receives resources from Square Enix that could be allocated elsewhere--and that's exactly what's happening as SE is reallocating resources that would have gone to SE Europe back to the parent company, which is what I want.
nial said:
There is not shift happening because SQE is still operating as usual, you're just advocating for layoffs happening in order to up their margins.
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Riiiiiight. Except that I'm actually advocating for fewer resources being spent on games I (and many others) don't care about to hopefully reallocate those towards Japanese SE games I do care about.
 
Seems like they are cutting a lot of deadwood in publishing. Which sucks for those affected, but as a consumer of their product I think may be a blessing in disguise.

SE really need to rediscover their identity as a Japanese Developer and publisher. They need to focus on what made them unique and special, and honestly I think them trying to play global publisher, while not without successes, had an overall negative impact.
 
Omnipunctual Godot said:
Again, you're not making sense. SE Europe/Limited is a subsidiary of Square Enix, which means it receives resources from Square Enix that could be allocated elsewhere--and that's exactly what's happening as SE is reallocating resources that would have gone to SE Europe back to the parent company, which is what I want.

Riiiiiight. Except that I'm actually advocating for fewer resources being spent on games I (and many others) don't care about to hopefully reallocate those towards Japanese SE games I do care about.
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To be specific, I mean the game production division of SQCL receiving those resources over the game production division of SQE, I obviously know that SQE is a subsidiary.
 
Omnipunctual Godot said:
Again, you're not making sense. SE Europe/Limited is a subsidiary of Square Enix, which means it receives resources from Square Enix that could be allocated elsewhere--and that's exactly what's happening as SE is reallocating resources that would have gone to SE Europe back to the parent company, which is what I want.
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What would they realistically be able to do with like a 100 employees' salaries and benefits? Keep in mind that we're talking about people on Gamedev salaries (universally known as some of the shittiest wages).

The company's main issue is the Japan branch's (More specifically, the Square part of Square Enix) failure to execute and deliver strong tentpole games on time. Square Enix Europe or US aren't to blame for that at all.

Omnipunctual Godot said:
Riiiiiight. Except that I'm actually advocating for fewer resources being spent on games I (and many others) don't care about to hopefully reallocate those towards Japanese SE games I do care about.
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I'm a big fan of those too, but one of Square's biggest issues is they have almost nothing but those in the pipeline. They have basically zero variety happening and their attempts at finding those were flopping at a catastrophic rate.

Eventually they will run out of beloved things to remake or remaster and have to scrape the bottom of the barrel.
 
semiconscious said:
not sure 'massive' is the right word here...
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I was wondering if I was the crazy one here. They have almost 5,000 employees. Laying off 100 is a far from "massive", and it pales in comparison to other layoffs in the video game sector in the past few years.
  • Epic Games laid off almost 1,000 employees in 2023 which was over 16% of its workforce.
  • Unity laid off almost 2,000 employees back in 2024 which was around 25% of its workforce.
  • Embracer group laid off almost 8,000 people back in 2023-2024 which accounted for over 50% of its workforce.
It sucks for the people who were laid off, but the Square Enix layoffs are downright tame in comparison to other places in the industry.
 
smh, pushing for more Ai to cut cost and then having mass layoffs


So...miss me with that bullshit in pretending this stuff doesn't happen in Japan
 
EDMIX said:
smh, pushing for more Ai to cut cost and then having mass layoffs


So...miss me with that bullshit in pretending this stuff doesn't happen in Japan
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It didn't happen in Japan. They laid off a bunch of westerners who likely provided little to no value in recent years.

Like, did the US people get Square in touch with Sweet Baby to add a bunch of worthless crap to Dragon Quest? Lmao… bye!

I look forward to a leaner, more focused SE going forward.
 
Despite the output not being nearly as bad for my tastes, I feel like Square is in the most precarious position of all the big pubs. Even Ubi has R6'to bring money in. EA has ball sports and now BF again. What does Square have to fall back on?
 
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