Square Enix’s rebuild will cost many jobs. Final Fantasy creators plan layoffs to ‘optimize costs’.

After several failed releases, Square Enix has announced that it is making a significant change in strategy. From now on, the company will focus on bringing its video games – especially the hugely successful Final Fantasy series – to all platforms, trying to win over as many users as possible to get a better return on its investments, and has decided to value “quality over quantity”. Good news, but preceded by one last bad blow. According to the latest news, the company will implement layoffs among European and North American workers.

Square Enix, the father of Final Fantasy, is making layoffs in Europe and the United States

Video Games Chronicle reports that both Square Enix’s European and American divisions are preparing for layoffs in the coming weeks. The information comes after the company officially admitted that it intends to rebuild the company’s divisions outside of Japan “from scratch”. It will also “optimize its costs through structural reforms” in its European and American offices.

It’s worth noting that it’s been just over a year since the brand’s president (Takashi Kiryu) assumed his post after promising radical changes to the brand.

Since it has not been confirmed how many Square Enix employees will be affected by the layoffs, the owners of intellectual properties such as Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest join the list of companies that have had to resort to such emergency measures. This case is perhaps the most surprising of all. Because Japan seemed immune to the problems that plagued companies in the rest of the world. However, due to a series of bad decisions and, above all, poor sales of the latest games, the company had to tighten its belts in terms of spending.

The decision was made barely a week after Microsoft implemented significant structural changes affecting its studios. This resulted in several layoffs and the closure of Japanese developer Zenimax-owned Tango Gameworks under the Xbox brand umbrella. The alarming trend in the video game industry has been going on since the end of last year, and unfortunately, it doesn’t look like it will end anytime soon…

Source: VGC