Square Enix Sacks 10% of Workforce
- Categories: Games, News
- Date: Nov 6, 2009 04:18 JST
- Tags: Business, Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy, Marketing, PS3, Square Enix, Xbox 360
Square Enix has officially announced long rumoured massive cuts to its workforce, with the company set to sack 10% of its employees in a move it insists is not “restructuring” but is instead an act of “organizational invigoration.”
The move was announced at the recent shareholders’ assembly by CEO Yōichi Wada, and will see the company shedding 10% of its 3,805 employees:
“Our management strength has been weakened through repeated mergers, and the kind of inefficiency typical of large enterprises has set in. We intend to reduce our organisation’s size to improve coordination.
This is not a restructuring, but done for the sake of organizational invigoration.”
It will be interesting to see whether this latest new euphemism for sacking unwanted employees will stick…
Square Enix is actually enjoying quite favourable performance, with sales up 33.2% on a year earlier, and operating profits up 39.3%, indicating the move, severe as it is, is by no means a desperate one, particularly with the imminent release of Final Fantasy XIII.
In other news Wada also insists Final Fantasy XIII will be the best selling Final Fantasy title since Final Fantasy X, saying Europe and America are the “fertile lands” the company is aiming for…
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"Final Fantasy XIII will be the best selling Final Fantasy title since Final Fantasy X"
Well, yeah. They better make it better than XII.
I'm sure these cutbacks wouldn't affect the higher ups at all. They can continue to enjoy their luxuries.
Isn't this good news? Excess programmers are not productive we are assuming the worst too early.
I sense and upcoming decline in the quality of games from them. One could hope thier reasoning was legitimate, but it seems more like they want to boost pocket money for execs....
What happened, Squeenix? You used to be cool... but now you've started killing off fanmade tributes of your games(*cough* Crimson Echoes *cough*), appealed to idiots with stuff like Star Ocean 4 and Infinite Undiscovery, and now THIS!
Hey Star Ocean is cool. Now, Infinite Undiscovery, THAT'S a different story. You can tell the suckiness just by looking at it's title.
Yeah they killed the fan tribute to Crono Trigger when it was 98% done if that wasn't an asshole move i don't know what is.
You are kidding yourself if you think it was anywhere near 98% done.
How do you fire 380.5 people?
I assume that some chainsaws are in use to reach the 380.5 quota.
Either that, or they outsource certain projects to the Chinese Dwarves.
they had it comin
they had it comin
they only had themselves to blame
Why "Xbox 360" in the tags?
Artefact you like provocation don't u??!1! !?
I'm guessing it's because Final Fantasy XIII is a multiplatform title (PS3 & 360)
And nothing of value was lost
Does anyone know why everyone in FF XIII has the exact same run animation? I was watching them run it looks like a 100m dash at the special olympics.
They bought and merged with alot of companies. First there was Enix, then Taito, then Edios and I think one other thats quite a bit downsizing is expected.
Boy does that Wada guy look stupid now. XIII is probly going to be the worst selling, EVER !
Wada moron.
"Saying Europe and America are the “fertile lands” the company is aiming for…"
No shit? Europe is always the fifth wheel in video game market, so why bother?
Corporate management, the commissar way. Hopefully the remainder would finally make something that doesn't play like a graphic upgrade of ancient Wizardry games.
Where the fuck is my Drakengard 3!? 2's Nowe sucked big dick. How about a real Parasite Eve sequel? Or a sequel worthy of the original Musashiden!!! The PS2 sequel was disappointment in a box. A new Bushido Blade maybe? How's about a FF Tactics game on a real home console FUCK WII's shit graphics. Give me something!!! I'm looking forward to XIII and Versus XIII but seriously whoever thought up Sazh and that whiny little faggot with silver should be in that 10% BTW I mean conception of character not the designer (I like Nomura)
It can't be anyone else's fault other than Nomura himself if that's what you're complaining now. It's what these people call 'style'. Different artists have different takes, and Nomura just happen to have that kind of take.
In any case, I'm not crying for Nomura's blood, but I think there are better designers in Square-Enix.
The look of the material at the bottom of her shirt reminds me of a bra.
Gotta love the official terminology companies are making up nowadays.
JUST noticed. Are her eyes colored differently (blue and grey)? If so, Square's starting to have a thing for heterochromia.
Nah. Both are blue.
I hope Square-Enix diee a painful death. They have been the main force in turning video games into interactive movies, and they are leading the "screw those customers" way of selling you the same game twice with DLC and milking their franchises (CT, anyone ?).
What was the last good original SE game ?
Square Enix alongside Electronic Arts, you mean. Leading the "screw our customers" strategy.
If it's Square I may now some, but if you ask about SE then I don't. But I must admit SE's female characters have great fapping valuable however.
Never knew that girl from Bible Black would be a major character in Final Fantasy XIII.
LOL it never came to my mind!
i knew she lookd familiar!
I See it now....man fuck you =D
can't wait for Final Fantasy XIV
with Mizushima, Asa & Sorayama, Natsume as lead characters :3
Final Fantasy XIV is an MMORPG.
even better! we get to see Tony Taka's characters on an MMORPG
Oh well Nintendo making money from there games.
lol - organizational invigoration - try selling that to the people you just put on the street...
i'd like to sack her if you know what i mean
And I've been telling you guys, we need anime version of Dutch wives. Problem solved
I see what you did there Anon...
Lol who wouldn't?
I wouldn't. I don't want to wake up in a hospital with bits of LCD screen stuck in my dick.
Well if she was "real" you know. Seriously who would fuck a screen?
That's not fucking the screen, that's fucking the fleshlite attached to the screen
You?
http://www.sankakucomplex.com/2009/10/17/lcd-hime-mkii/
You needz more Sankaku reading.
you mean like sex right, tee-hee.
“organizational invigoration” nice use of words heh
Double speak.
Missiles for free means we launch it at you at no monetary cost to you.
A brilliantly concocted term indeed. Ah, white collar talks...
yay sack the programmers keep the suits.. wtf
Sounds more like it's the other way around to me. If you want to increase efficiency the first to go are middle management.
no actually your both wrong, the first to go are generally testers or newer staff while they keep the more experienced people
Well based on the article given above, it seems like staff who do not originally belong to Square Enix will get the sack first.
Well it varies from company to company, but in most cases it's always the high salary/low producing staff that gets the sack.
But those who have been there longer are entitles to longer notice periods and more redundancy money so its usually the new starters who are the first to go since they are the quickest and easiest to get rid of.
In my experience working in the software industry the other Anon is correct. Those who have put in the most time and make the most money get flayed off first. Those who are "newbs" who have skill and competence get a higher workload. Usually with no additional training. And no additional compensation.
Also in my experience the "old school" guys get sent off BEFORE the announcement of layoffs. That way they cant taint the workforce with the cynical point of view they will have if they know its coming. If not before, they are ninja-ed on the sidelines and out of line of sight on a friday if the plan calls for multiple weeks/months of layoffs.
ACTUALLY, you got it reversed, backwards, and upsidedown...whatever that means...
Normally the more experienced get laid off first because they've been with the company longer and thus make more money. New people being hired, especially in highly technical fields, have educations and degrees that would put them on par with those of higher experience, and since they're new they get paid less.
If two people can bring the same results, why not keep the one who will work for less? At least that's how the Suits normally see things.
"Organizational invigoration"?
"If you don't want to be part of that ten percent then work harder!"