Square Enix Warns of Future Layoffs in the UK - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 01 May 2013 / 3,698 Views
Square Enix has told GamesIndustry International that the companies UK office is currently under review, due to the poor sales of several of its titles. Square Enix is also expecting redundancies to show up, which means layoffs could be coming in the future.
"We are reviewing our business in Europe to ensure we have the right structure, content and skills for the changing entertainment landscape," said a Square Enix spokesperson in an email. "We do expect changes to the UK office, which will affect personnel. We will update you when the time is right, but our priority right now is for the people within the business."
Square Enix had revised in fiscal forecast for the year ending March 31, 2013. The company now expects a loss of ¥13 billion ($138m), due to several of its titles missing their sales targets. Hitman: Absolution, Sleeping Dogs and Tomb Raider all missed their sales targets.
Last month Square Enix had laid off some of its employees at its Los Angeles studio, which was restructured. Also Square Enix CEO and president Yoichi Wada has stepped down.
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Their European studios are much better than their Japanese studios. European studios needs more funding because they can make better games. But they seem to neglect the real fact.
thats a shame as i enjoyed tomb raider & playing hitman now which i like too,bought thse two but will play sleeping dogs too off plus,they seem like good games to me but what do i know
Come on EA haters. Start bashing Square Enix for buying developers and then laying off people because the games don't sell well. It would be hypocritical if you don't.
The difference here is that Eidos has been releasing much better titles for Square Enix than Square Enix, aside from remakes, has released the entire gen. Most of their Japanese titles have sucked, why not lay off those people instead?
Last time I checked most Square Enix games come complete with a proper ending, don't require always online drm which doesn't work and haven't been caught using alt twitter accounts to say the launch of their game was amazing... so what part of Square Enix is the same as EA?
The main problem for Square Enix is that they design games for an international audience from studios in Japan. Games developed in asia rarely succeed in the west. For one thing, an interface in an MMO developed by a studio somewhere in asia always looks so horrible.. Please Square Enix, don't close your western studios :(
I'm a bit confused as i dont know exactly what Squeenix UK entails. I thought it was just a localisation/distribution center of sorts. Do they have developers in the UK?
Hopefully this doesnt translate into fewer games coming over. We certainly dont want a return to the past where titles like Xenogears and Chrono Cross dont see release in the european market.
