Forum - View topicNEWS: Square Enix Confirms Layoffs, Restructuring in N. American, European Publishing Operations
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kikuzinho
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How I wish the Final Fantasy: Spirits Within movie and subsequent Square/Enix merger had never happened... I doubt Square will ever go back to its golden years, regardless of how much more money they seem to be making since then
I'm happy about the development focus going back to Japan but all this AI nonsense doesn't sound that it'll make them any better 
Last edited by kikuzinho on Sat Nov 08, 2025 4:33 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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enurtsol
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Companies have been cutting corporate jobs lately supposedly for AI efficiency - Amazon 14k, Target 1.8k, UPS 48k
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Silver Kirin
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I don't know what other options Squaresoft had in the late '90s and early 2000s, I think there were rumors that Sony wanted to buy Squaresoft outright due to the success they had during the PSOne era, but I've also heard rumors that Microsoft wanted to buy Square so the original Xbox would had more exclusive JRPGs, and seeing how last year S-E mentioned that console exclusivity was limiting their reach maybe it's a good thing that didn't happened. To be fair, I don't think the merger, or was technically an acquisition on the part of Enix, really affected the Squaresoft side of the company, I'd say it actally benefited in giving Enix's games a bit more exposure in the West. |
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Mune
Posts: 416 |
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Many companies, not just SE, have been looking into AI technologies to both initiate and check systems. This could be a lot of trial and error for SE, and hopefully a superior product.
I get that every company wants to increase the margins on their profits and run a skeleton crew to run the whole show with the assistance of AI. Staff is the one of the highest expenses, if not the most expensive expense to a company. If AI can do the job of even 1 person at a fraction of the price (even if it is only 1%), in the eyes of the company's financial department, it makes the most logical sense to have AI instead of a person. When a company is larger in size, we are talking about thousands of jobs, and as this article states, millions of dollars in profit margin for the company. There are major concerns about what people who previously held those jobs will do for work moving forward. If they are now having to seek employment again or worse, leave the workforce entirely because of this shift to AI, how will they afford to live or better yet, afford to buy the product(s) from these companies? |
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TheRealMaria
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No gaming company is ever going to go back to their golden years because not only are most/all of their old talent are gone (retired or deceased) but also because the market has changed too much and what video games are now are completely different than what they were in the 90s and early 2000s - especially if you want to be the most successful and make the most money. As much as I love games like Brave Fencer Musashi and Chrono Trigger they just can't be made today in a way that would mirror how they were back then. |
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invalidname
 Contributor Posts: 2553 Location: Grand Rapids, MI |
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People who wanted the old Squaresoft back sure didn’t show up when Square Enix took some mid-budget swings on new ideas like their strategy game The DioField Chronicle or Yoko Taro’s Voice of Cards series. I don’t hear anybody talking about Harvestella or Various Daylife either. |
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TheRealMaria
Posts: 123 |
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None of those games are anything like old Squaresoft output though. Harvestella and Various Daylife especially were low budget farmsim slop which kind of highlights my point as they were going after that market with those games. If they were meant to be like their 90s output then they failed spectacularly. You'd have better finding games like old Squaresoft ones among indie devs. Stardew Valley looks and plays more like Harvest Moon SNES than any other farmsim game coming out from AAA studios including Harvest Moon/Story of Seasons games (I know Harvest Moon wasnt Square but since we're talking about farmsim stuff I'm using that example) |
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Motagij
Posts: 13 |
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I am satisfied with Square Enix output, and don't see it in any way inferior to Squaresoft days.
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BadNewsBlues
Posts: 7201 |
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At least until people have to step down or resign when a project underperforms. Not sure what’s the upside is supposed to be here. |
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chrisb
 Subscriber Posts: 766 Location: USA |
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Woah woah woah. Harvestella is not slop! 
I recommend anyone who was turned off by initial impressions give it a shot. It punches far above its weight and has one of the best jrpg stories I’ve had the pleasure of reading. Emotional storytelling and beautiful soundtrack make up for the technical limitations and it’s still a lot of fun. |
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AiddonValentine
 Posts: 2955 |
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SqEx trying AI nonsense right at the time when it seems the whole thing is about the collapse. Brilliant idea, bozos
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tuxedo-melvin
Posts: 49 |
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If it's only the western side then the actual Japanese games will probably be unaffected. If anything it probably just means less stuff like Forspoken or other western titles which I'm fine with.
Not a fan of most of their stuff these days but maybe a renewed focus and consolidation in Japan can change things up. |
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MKVarana
 Posts: 106 |
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The trend in tech these days seems to be: develop an idea -> halfheartedly develop it -> push it to market asap -> grift on it until it's tainted. LLMs (I find calling them "AI" to be purposefully misleading) aren't a toxic idea at their core, but they aren't ready for this extensive push to the masses, and they're being used for things that they have no business doing. All that said, based just on this article, I gotta defend SE here; QA and debugging are actually good use cases for them, especially if they don't intend to make them do 100% of the job (because let's face it, by their very nature, they give false information all the time). LLMs should be treated like tools to aid in tedious tasks. Companies that think they're gonna replace all their employees with them are in for a rude awakening when they realize there's no one with the knowledge of how to fix their mistakes left until it's too late. But we shouldn't demonize the companies using them properly, at least as long as they stay that way. |
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AsleepBySunset
Posts: 315 |
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My problem with this thinking is people call whatever task they need done, but don't want to learn how to do "tedious". Like the massive uptick in people calling drawing backgrounds tedious... Yeah, for you it's tedious because you can't draw backgrounds and just trace 3d models. If you learnt how to do it it wouldn't be tedious. |
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enurtsol
Posts: 15210 |
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Square Enix says it wants generative AI to be doing 70% of its QA and debugging by the end of 2027. It has launched a partnership with the Matsuo-Iwasawa Laboratory at the University of Tokyo aimed at improving the efficiency of game development processes through AI technologies
There's the upcoming Chrono Trigger-inspired time-travel turn-based 2.5D pixel art RPG called Threads of Time featuring a party of heroes from across epochs
Going forward, Square Enix intends to release fewer games that draw massive revenue, rather than several smaller games with minuscule profit margins Make of that what ya will |
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