Square Enix Begins Massive Layoffs As Part Of ‘Restructuring’

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Square Enix, a leading video game company, is laying off employees, potentially affecting as many as 100 people.

An internal presentation reveals the company is restructuring its international operations. Essentially, they plan to prioritize growth in Japan, which will mean reducing publishing activities in the US and UK – the locations where employees will be impacted.

The presentation highlights three pillars of transformation for the company:

  • Lean
  • Agile
  • Multi-skilled teams

Square Enix is streamlining its HD Games publishing team, consolidating from eleven divisions to just four, as shown in the image below.

Here’s an explanation from Square Enix:

We’re focusing on improving the quality of our work rather than just increasing the amount. After reviewing our projects and teams internationally, we anticipate a restructuring cost of 11.8 billion yen, which will be reflected in our financial results for the year ending March 2026.

Franchises previously managed by our international development teams will now be handled as part of a unified global system. We’re also reviewing how we assign development support staff both in Japan and overseas to improve efficiency across the entire company.

Square Enix Was In The News Earlier Today For Its New Focus On AI Initiatives

Square Enix announced today that it’s aiming to use AI for 70% of its quality assurance and bug-fixing tasks. It’s been a noteworthy day for the company as they shared this ambitious goal.

The company is working with the University of Tokyo’s Matsuo Laboratory to help game developers work more efficiently using artificial intelligence. Blizzard Entertainment has also confirmed they are using AI to automate repetitive tasks, freeing up their developers to focus on more creative work.

2025 has unfortunately been a year of widespread layoffs in the video game industry. It’s disappointing, especially considering the number of fantastic games released and still on the way. Despite all the good games, there’s a lot of worry and sadness due to studios closing and people losing their jobs.

Recent layoffs have impacted several game studios. Amazon’s cuts led to the cancellation of its Lord of the Rings online game and all future updates for New World. While Dune: Awakening had been doing well, its development team also experienced layoffs. Even King, the company behind Candy Crush and owned by Microsoft, reportedly replaced some employees with artificial intelligence. One former employee at King said they believed they were let go after voicing concerns internally.

Just to clarify, the recent layoffs at Square Enix don’t seem to be connected to their efforts with artificial intelligence. Although both topics were discussed during their presentation, the presentation materials suggest they were being treated as completely different issues.

As a long-time fan, it’s really tough to see more layoffs. It seems like the company is completely restructuring, shrinking from 11 different groups down to just 4, and they’re hoping to save over 3 billion yen each year. Honestly, after seeing so many layoffs across the industry for the past couple of years, it’s hard not to worry about when the next wave will hit. It’s a worrying time for everyone involved.

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2025-11-07 00:39