Mass layoffs at Square Enix are now underway, potentially affecting over 100 employees at the company across the US and UK. Over the years, Square Enix has made a name for itself with franchises such as Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasyand while that growth has expanded the company into overseas offices, it appears it has chosen to scale back some operations.
Square Enix has been quiet lately, as games like Kingdom Hearts 4 and Final Fantasy VII Remake Part 3 remain in the shadows. With other upcoming projects like Octopath Traveler 0 and a remake of Dragon Quest VIIit seemed that Square Enix continued to grow, but unfortunately the company has chosen to lay off many of its employees who reside outside of Japan.
Square Enix's mass layoffs hit its US and UK offices
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Square Enix is looking to consolidate its publishing.
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The company also wants its development to take place in Japan.
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Square Enix wants 70% of QA work to be done by generative AI in the future.
Employees affected by the layoffs have posted the news on social media, but the most important insight into the company's decision can be found in an internal memo outlining Square Enix's future plans. The memorandum clearly emphasizes the “reorganization of foreign organizations.” One detail of the company-wide memo that will be controversial is the confirmation that Square Enix intends to implement a lot more AI going forward. The company hopes that AI will do 70% of debugging and AI tasks by the end of 2027. This shift to AI is to “improve the efficiency of QA operations and create a competitive advantage in game development.”
It is unclear how many US employees have been affected, but an estimated 137 UK employees could be laid off. However, this number is subject to change following consultation on redundancy, as required by UK law. Going forward, development will be focused in Japan, with the memo clearly stating, “A decision was made to close overseas development studios and move to consolidate development functions in Japan.” Other details in the memo mentioned Square Enix's gaming calendar for the next three years and its plans to expand various IPs into other mediums, such as the recently announced Life is strange TV series.
Over time, the number of redundancies will become clearer. Unfortunately, game cancellations have been quite common this year. Microsoft had some of the most notable layoffs earlier this year, and Square Enix is now sadly added to the list.
- Date founded
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April 1, 2003
- Head office
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Shinjuku City, Tokyo, Japan
