Square Enix Sacks 10% of Workforce

[Kimiko]

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…

Source: http://www.sankakucomplex.com/2009/1...-of-workforce/

[Celeras]

Pretty old, all they were doing was cutting dead weight from the Eidos merger.

[wipers]

I have a feeling that 10% is the people that worked on FFXI. lol

[Pikarya]

I have a feeling that 10% is the people that worked on FFXI. lol

Was just going to post, ahahaha.

[Ramor]

I think everyone on this board got that feeling.

[QuePsiXI]

I have a feeling that 10% is the people that worked on FFXI. lol

You guys are a lot more generous than usual if you're going to say over 300 people are currently "working" on FFXI.

[Vuitton]

You guys are a lot more generous than usual if you're going to say over 300 people are currently "working" on FFXI.

Yeah, more like 5 people including Sage Sundi and Tanaka-san. Two of the remaining 3 are assistants to Sundi and Tanaka, and the fifth person is the task force. When they do game updates they just grab a handful of people from the FFXIII and FXIV development teams to write some storyline and recolor subligars and robes for new armor, then send them back.

[Sumy]

I wonder if the pink slips will just say "Eidos"?

[Celeste]

Why are they so mean to Eidos?

[Jakson]

I like how he says XIII will be the best selling since X, and there's been all of...3, and I was under the impression XI always has and still does make a profit, whereas I doubt X-2 and XII are still selling a lot of copies.

Edit: I guess after rereading it, they're including Dirge of Cerberus and other spin-offs, but how often do spin-offs do better than the main series?