Square Enix Is Firing Its Western Teams Again. The Reason? "Generative AI"
The publisher announced massive cuts to its US and EU offices, the same day it announced plans to replace QA with AI. Of course.
Well, it's Thursday, so it must be time for another massive, soul-crushing round of video game layoffs.
Square Enix just held an all-hands meeting for its Western business, that's the US and Europe, and announced a "fundamental restructuring of the overseas publishing organization".
Company president Takashi Kiryu got on a video call and fed the staff the usual corporate bullshit bingo card. He said the company needs to be more "lean" and "agile".
We all know what that means. "Nearly all areas" of the Western business are being affected by cuts.
"Last Year's Layoffs Didn't Work"
Here's the kicker. This is the second year in a row they've done this. And according to VGC sources, Kiryu straight-up admitted that last year's overseas restructuring "hadn't worked".
So, naturally, the solution is to... do it again, but harder.
This isn't just trimming the fat. In the London office alone, nearly 140 people were told they are "at risk". This is a bloodbath.
We're talking cuts across IT, marketing, publishing, sales, QA, and business planning. The entire Collective (their indie publishing label), the external studios development team, and the brand marketing teams have all been told they're at risk. All to save about 3 billion yen, or $19.6 million.
Ah, There It Is: The AI Pivot
I was reading this, getting angrier and angrier, and then the other shoe dropped. The "why." The real reason.
This layoff announcement came on the exact same day that Square Enix shared its intention to have "the majority of its QA and debugging work handled by generative AI within the next two years".
There it is. That's the story.
This isn't a "restructuring." This is a replacement. They're firing their human QA, publishing, and marketing teams in the West to cut costs and chase the AI buzzword. They're not just getting "lean"; they're attempting to replace a skilled, human workforce with a magic black box that can't even count fingers.
This is a massive, insulting blow to everyone who just lost their job. It's a grim, predictable, and utterly ghoulish day for the industry. What a fucking mess.
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