During some recent meetings, Square Enix said it wants to “completely redo its overseas business” and make changes to save money at its offices in Europe and America. This was announced at the same time as the company’s financial results for the last three months.
Kiryu, who is the boss of Square Enix, has recently taken charge as part of a big change in how the company makes games. This change happened because the company’s big games didn’t sell as well as they hoped. Also, some new people in Japan have been given important jobs, and they will make sure that no one person has too much control over the projects.
The company shared a plan for the next few years called ‘Square Enix Reboots and Awakens.’ The plan explains how they want to grow in the long term. As part of this, Square Enix said they want to start making games that can be played on many different consoles, like Nintendo, PlayStation, Xbox, and computers. They hope this will help more people enjoy their games.
The people who work in publishing, IT, and the Square Enix Collective indie games part of the company will be the most affected. These job cuts are expected to happen over the next month (Thanks, VGC). The exact number of workers impacted by the job cuts is not known yet. US workers might lose their jobs before this month ends, while UK workers will start a one-month period of giving advice because of the laws in their country about employment.
Despite not being mentioned in the plan, it’s important to know that recent Final Fantasy games like Final Fantasy 7 Remake, Final Fantasy 16, and Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth were only available on PS5. If these games didn’t sell as well as expected, then that might be a big reason why.
Essentially, the value of Square Enix’s shares dropped significantly, the biggest drop in 13 years for the company. This is a big deal, and the company has to make big moves to show shareholders that it can reach sales numbers. While the company tries to balance its game-making creativity with what customers and the market want, it has to appease those who give the company the money to operate. Unfortunately, this could be at the cost of employees.
Comments