VGC understands that Square Enix told staff at an internal meeting on Monday that it plans to make an unconfirmed number of job cuts as part of its ongoing corporate restructuring.
According to attendees, Square Enix President Takashi Kiryu said that both the company's American and European divisions have been hit with layoffs, with layoffs expected to take place within the next month.
The scale of the job cuts was not disclosed, but staff were told that those primarily working in publishing, IT and Square Enix's collective and indie games divisions would be affected.
Staff said those affected will be notified this week. In the UK, employees will enter a one-month consultancy period under local employment laws, while US-based staff could leave before June.
According to VGC, many of Square Enix's major Slack channels were locked after an internal meeting on Monday.
The layoffs coincided with the company's quarterly earnings release today, in which Square Enix said it plans to “rebuild its international operations from the ground up” and “reduce costs in its European and American offices through structural reforms.” We have started optimizing.”
VGC has reached out to Square Enix for comment on this story.
Kiryu, who was appointed as the new boss of the Final Fantasy company in June 2023, has implemented a major reorganization of development activities in a bid to reverse recent disappointing sales of Square Enix's biggest games. There is.
In Japan, Square Enix recently promoted a new group of creators to executive officer positions to check producers' influence on individual projects, according to Bloomberg.
Today, Square Enix announced a new medium-term management plan and revealed its intention to make AAA games multi-platform in the future.
The plan, dubbed “Square Enix's Reboot and Awakening” by the publisher, lays out a three-year strategy that it hopes will lead to “long-term growth.”
Square Enix's latest financial results showed that its profits decreased by nearly 70% from the previous year, partly because the company “recognized 22,087 million yen ($141 million) in content disposal losses as an extraordinary loss.”
These losses were related to the cancellation of projects that did not fit with their future strategy, suggesting that they may have been tied to a single platform or over-reliant on external developers. the company said.
Square Enix stated that it will “actively pursue a multi-platform strategy that includes Nintendo platforms, PlayStation, Xbox, and PC.”
This will allow us to “build an environment where more customers can enjoy our titles, including major franchises and AAA titles, including catalog titles.''
Although not explicitly stated in the plan, recent Final Fantasy games, including Final Fantasy 7 Remake, Final Fantasy 16, and Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, have all been released as PS5-exclusive software, with sales of the latter titles expected to increase. It is said that there are extremely few.
