They're not the only major publisher struggling, they all are. After looking at the Alpha videos for Final Fantasy 14: A Realm Reborn, they may be in for a comeback in a big way.
Square Enix North America hit by layoffs
By
Laura Parker, Associate Editor
Publisher says layoffs at its Los Angeles office is a result of ensuring the studio is "operating effectively"; says upcoming titles will not be affected.
Square Enix has reduced the workforce of its Los Angeles, California, office this week, laying off an undisclosed number of staff.
The publisher confirmed the news to Massively, with Senior Director of Public Relations Riley Brennan telling the site:
"In order to ensure it is operating effectively, the Square Enix Los Angeles office has reduced its workforce."
"This was a difficult decision, and we wish the best for those affected by these changes. The decision will not have any impact on the operations of MMO titles."
The layoffs will reportedly not impact the upcoming launch of MMORPG Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn.
In August this year, Square Enix posted a $26 million quarterly loss. Its remaining slate of games for the current fiscal year includes high-profile new releases Tomb Raider and Hitman: Absolution.
By
Laura Parker, Associate Editor
Laura Parker is the Associate Editor of GameSpot Australia. She loves adventure games, sparkly stuff, Trivial Pursuit, cake, Master Chief, earthworms, and rhetorical questions. She once stole a sandwich from Peter Molyneux.
61 comments
Mass hiring ---> Make the game ---> Mass layoff
repeat the sequence above as many time as you whish.
Employers shouldn't play with their employees like that...
A time will come when they'll pay for all that.....
@Sampawende this happens each new generation. doesnt ignore the fact this is a terrible way to conduct a workplace
1 Like I used to LOVE Squaresoft and I was a huge fan of ENIX. Combined it's been like gaming poison.
And why can't Obama at least give these amaxing people their jobs. nothing say merry chrsitmas like getting laid off! :(
Well, feel bad for the people who were layed off. FF was okay, but Tomb Raider will most definitly be a huge hit and i'm excited for it, glad it won't have an large effect on MMO titles. -Hugglepoof- :)
1 Like Personally, the high point of Square (soft to Enix) was FFVI. I started getting bored with FF series after that. FFXI and FXXII kinda sorta rejuvenated the series for me only to be backhanded by FFXIV. I'll admit that FF is my Kryptonite, I'll give it a favorable review off the bat because it is an FF game, but if it burned me like FFXIV did, then I hope they break up the company. It got too big and the direction to "Easy MMO Money" land is their current philosophy slaps its history of otherwise great games.
@decoy1978 I agree although I'd suggest ChronoTrigger and FFVII were pretty good. The problem is JRPGs migrated to far towards interactive movies. I think FFVII was that tipping point where RPGs started having a larger effect on the NA and EU markets. In the process, Western RPGs started innovating and JRPGs got left behind. Maybe not in Japan, but here, it's been a longtime since a JRPG really resonated in the market place.
@eyeball2452 @decoy1978 Everyone holds 7 up on a pedestal when really 6-10 are the golden era for Square Final Fantasy games. FF7's storyline stinks after you leave Midgar IMHO, but to each his own. 11, 12, 13, and 13-2 were ok, but all had major design flaws.
@eyeball2452 @decoy1978 No what happened is the East business model became out dated. Just like it cost more to develop a game for the nintendo over atari, and costs more money and man hours to make a game for a Playstation over a sega master system - they just could not transition to game development of larger companies.
Square and Enix hope that by pooling all their management they could still make 6th generation games on a 4th generation model.
Also poor management decisions - business decisions crippled the company. Look up post mortem of ff12 rt wiki.
A JRPG does and will sell just fine here in the west, but a 1999 jrpg will not. They have been needing to throw away that old business model and update to the future for nearly a decade.
I like how the article, about Square Enix, which mainly involved the new FF Online (related game both on the left and inside the article), has a logo and an inside article picture of Tomb Raider. Consistency.
FF up to XII was good. Everything else is garbage. Don't understand why XIII is getting a third sequel. If Square Enix was the only video game company I would of quit gaming already and found a new hobby.
Square Enix (Squaresoft) used to be an industry icon,it's a real shame they still produce some good stuff but the industry unfortunately is going in the direction of other genres in gaming.
And still no word on Thief4. I bet they don't even make the game. They could make some money off of it. There are a lot of Thief fans out there. Lets get it done.
@1947gamer Some of the Thief developers worked on Dishonored. I don't think we'll hear anything for some time if there is any word on a new one.
@1947gamer I Never played a Thief game, but always heard good things, I forgot it was a Eidos title.
?The journey is the reward.? Good luck to the employees, hope they are settled with a new job soon enough.
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Hopefully these folks will find work within the industry. California is having difficulties but I'm sure that Square Enix will sort itself out. Too many projects that didn't quite pan out for them.
Never good to hear about job losses but this could have been avoided if SE would pull its head out of its arse and look at the quality of its game FF14 was released in a god awful state, FF13 was possibly the worst FF I've ever played and is somehow getting a 3rd sequel and then there's the missing games like FF:versus or the FF10 remake and then there's the game which would pretty much allow SE print their own money KH3 and an FF7 remake. That bull**** about not remaking FF7 till they make an FF game that tops it just made me laugh since it'll never happen if I'm not mistaken the second most downloaded game from the PSN is FF7
1 Like Sorry to hear. I'm wondering how much of this is there own fault though? Their new titles are all download only for PC.
Being a PC gamer for the most part, when I see this, I wait until a title is at least half off before I buy it. I like my physical copy. I never pay full price for a download.
There are many with limited access to broad band. These people might also be skipping download only titles for the PC.
Hopefully it was their customer service department. Square-Enix's customer service is so horrendously bad, they'd actually be better off outsourcing to India.
I wish that was hyperbole, but having dealt with them many times over the years playing FFXI, I sadly know it to be true.
the current industry dieing is nothing but a good thing.
And if you'd like success stories please refer to the folks that will be filling that void one day and see your indie market.
@deon99 well, we don't usually hear about hirings, and good news isn't usually reported unless it's something artificial like quartery earnings (which in turn can be improved by cutting costs, i.e. layoffs).
8 Like Final Fantasy used to be on par with the best;
GTA, Zelda, Marios, Halos ...
It's nothing now, it can be put in the same catogory as Resident Evil.
RIP.
@Ayfauri You are so right on that statement! They messed up taking FF away from Nintendo. The first few FF games were exclusive to Nintendo then they decided to go to Sony. Kind of cooked their own goose.
I don't blame them, but I still like FFXIII(sorry).
Most I blame is Capcom for not making Mega Men ever since Mega Men 10 and they don't care at all.
Oh yes, Resident Evil 6 Suck.
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@queuing_for_PS4 @Ayfauri I don't think going multiplatform has anything to do with the FF slump. That just sounds like Sony fanboyism to me. You do realize that FF1 through FF6 were Nintendo exclusives, and that FF7 was released on PC, multiple spin-offs were released on Gamecube and GBA, and FF11 was released on the original Xbox. FF13 staying exclusive to PS3 would not have saved it.
As for Versus XIII restoring anything, keep dreaming. The game's been in development for over 7 years and will flop without a doubt if it's ever released.
@WhiteStormy "FF13 staying exclusive to PS3 would not have saved it."
This is what caused their downfall!
1 Like @queuing_for_PS4 @Ayfauri I can't say that is true they made Final Fantasy XIII the way they did to expand on the foundations of the game elements they used in Final Fantasy XII which to say was a brilliant game, the reason they chose to make it quite liner and developed that god awful battle system was not because it went multi-platform as Final Fantasy has always been multi-platform crossed between Nintendo and Sony, but because they wanted to join the band wagon like other games were doing and simplifying things for a wider audience so narrowing the games limits to appeal to a newer audiance (the causal market) where the money is. Also in hope that after that they could make a better game with the one after to ease them into it.
1 Like @Ayfauri It still had great titles for PSP but yes, FFXIIIs were terrible. Didn't play FFXIV, heard it's not anything extraordinary. But I still have some hope, about 5 out of approx 18 titles being bad isn't such a bad rate.
1 Like On a side note, what Square Enix has to do with Hitman and Tomb Raider? How did this happen? It would sound... surreal five years ago.
@Rheinmetal They bought out the company who makes Hitman and Tomb Raider named Eidos back in 2009.
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