Happenings Square Enix to lay off NA/EU staff for a second year in a row
- Thread starter Ebicentre
- Start date
News and big events. It's happening boys
Square Enix's Chief Publishing Officer John Heinecke resigned in protest against the layoffs.
He's a woketard.
ghostarchive.org
He's a woketard.
Archiving in progress.....
ghostarchive.org
Gotta love it when the trash takes itself out.
Honestly I am glad it happened. Hopefully AI can take up 90% of the Western Branch's and their only focus can be just on advertising, and publishing. With a few workers for AI Translations and other work. After Dawntrail controversy, the statements made about players being upset about mandatory minigames on FFRebirth, and turning Dissidia into a Gacha(which makes zero sense) I hope more bad things happen to them. Also good on the guy for firing himself, if I remember Kate is also gone as well finally.
OK, so it turns out there are quite a few notable people laid off by Squeenix that should be mentioned here. All credit to TheReunionVII and Mark Kern for this list.
I'll add more as they come along.
- John Heinecke (see above)
- Kate Cwynar (English Localization Lead for Final Fantasy XIV)
- Ryan Arbogast (Senior Director, Public Relations)
- Emily Shoji (Director of Public Relations)
- Hinano Akiyama (Assistant Manager, Project Communication and Events)
- Izzy Jagan (Global Public Relations Manager)
- Eric Folliot (Senior Director of Marketing)
- Niralee Modha (Marketing Manager at Square Enix; worked on the Dragon Quest III HD remake; 'Being a person of colour & a woman in the industry I feel it’s important to represent my heritage and make my voice heard.')
- Sandra Chau (Global Campaign Lead & Senior Marketing Manager; Ambassador for Women In Games)
- Anne-Lou Grobois-Favreau (Global Brand Mentor; 'Star Mentor of the lobbying agency Limit Break Mentorship along with FFXVI actor Ben Starr')
- Yusuke Haruguchi (Localization Project Manager [Japanese Branch]; 'they take into account overseas cultures and trends and even consult with the development team to change the character appearances and game content')
- Mizuho Kondo ('marketing, community, PR, & Japanese interpretation for the FF14 projects who answered to Western Leadership, John Heinecke')
I'll add more as they come along.
Couldn't have happened to better people.
Put the fries in the bag.
Put the fries in the bag.
There is key quotes here.
"The Mission of the Localization Division is to create a high quality game that is not recognized as a Japanese Game, We do not simply translate the audio we take into account the smallest details taking into account Overseas, Cultures and Trends and in some cases Consult the Development Team to change the appearances and Game Content"
"They work closely with the Translators in the Localization Division, as well as the producers, directors and section leaders of the Development side[...] Dozens of translators may be involved. ONE major difference between them and the development team and the development team's project manager is that they must extensively communicate in English and always view the game in the perspective of overseas users and markets [...] The Localization project manager works with translators to identify potential issues, coordinate corrections with the development team, and manage the entire international version project."
What is funny is this does mean that this was a Management overstepping it's role on the Development team and forcing their way on them, especially the Localization Division, which we can now confirm and we have always theorized including myself that they have been pushing for censorship for products when they are overseas to try and appeal to the Blue Ocean(Not making it Japanese) and also have been pushing developers to censor their own product domestically so nobody would buy the JP Version and get the unaltered one. This also explains why Japan could not do anything about it because the sales Overseas were 3X more than the ones in Japan and so Management became greedy and betrayed everyone there.
This means my source was right and I did not listen, because they said Developers kept fighting against the Localization Management, and knew what the fans in the West and in Asia wanted, but were overruled by the Localization Division but now this is happening, and I will tell the rest of what they have told me the last few days.
1. Western Branches are going to be Publishing and Marketing. They will not have any localizers, they will not have any developers because that will be handled by AI for QA, Debugging, Translations and only a few humans proofreading team and corrections(most likely Bilingual Japanese or Southeast Asia) moving forward.
2. This means that basically the Gaming Otaku in Japan are in full control and have final say there, and I have talked to my source to know the situation, that they are going to make sure everything is 1:1 between Japan and Overseas to learn from last time in which they had the uncensored version and overseas had the censored version. The reason why they do that is because they only care about their market and can be selfish, but have realized that the problem was caused because it creates a cycle in which if it's censored it attracts the Blue Ocean(Casual) fanbase that overwhelms the Red Ocean here and messes everything up in Japan all over again. Besides us Otaku over here are not much different from them and we are definitely not the Anti's that hate Fanservice, want censorship on social media at all and pretend to be fans of the content in the first place.
3. What we are witnessing with Square Enix, we will be seeing across the board next year with a lot of firings in the Western Branch's and they will only be left to do Marketing/Publishing and the rest will be AI with small human team involvement and the Japanese Otaku for Gaming overseeing it. I do think this also will be in effect for Anime with Anime Otaku with Anime Industry etc but do not quote me on it.
4. Gaming Otaku are finally slowly letting go of their stranglehold grip over the AA industry and the Indies they have been holding back intentionally as they felt like with the West holding onto the AAA industry they did not desire to lose the AA and Indies to become like it is in the AAA Industry where it's corrupt and they have zero control with corrupt management. This also explains why Sony's State Of Play was actually halfway decent with Makaism, Etrange Overlord and the recent Sumikko Gurashi are releasing West. Because they see the writing on the wall as do most Japanese AAA right now that the days of DEI/ESG and even the West or Overseas calling the shots is over.
The reason this is happening is LDP/Ishin Coalition is crafting laws against DEI/ESG laws aka the worst aspects of Globalism, and they are working on protecting their market with various new rules, because currently right now Japan's economy is very bad, and basically they are relying on those markets in the Entertainment Industry to prop their economy up currently as if entertainment falls, they are at risk of going into a recession or a collapse. It will still be Global, but it will be the Japanese Way of doing things(aka the Otaku of the various industries will control it) and it will need to be done with Respect and have to be Mutual in the sense of the partnership being of kindred spirits that respect the culture, love it, and will be faithful with the product and bringing it overseas purposes, than that of betrayal or toning things down for the Global Market. Japan can not afford anymore censorship, anymore long term losses.
Some final notes:
A.Cool Japan is also dead, and will no longer exist anymore as LDP/Ishin do not like it, felt like it was a waste of taxpayer money and was worthless when Japanese Culture is already well known overseas.
B. they are willing to do collabs with Otaku overseas to help give them recognition. Gaming Otaku are willing to advertise fellow Gaming Otaku, Anime Otaku with Gacha are interested as well to do collabs.
C. Finally there is a new mindset brewing in Japan after that news that basically there is this new mentallity of defeating China and South Korea and taking back lost territory in the West and Asia as a whole. This seems widespread amongst Japanese who see Marvel Rivals and Mihoyo as threats, and are saying they are not Otaku but pretend they are and give nothing back to Otaku's as a whole including in Japan itself. Essentially they take their talent in Gacha or Video Games and they still say "Japan is over, Japan is dead, South Korea and China are the future" and they are mad at them for that and see them as ungrateful and it's becoming this unifying force between Anime Otaku(Gacha) and Gaming Otaku market to fight back for once for the Japanese market.
Keep in mind, this will take time, but it will get there. I also because I live in America, I have heard rumors Trump is most likely going to address the banking situation and DEI situation early next year as well considering that Japan is doing the same as Takaichi and Trump have had a conversation about it. Trump needs to win in the midterms in 2026 along with his party, and it makes sense if he tackles those issues to pump up his party for the midterms, younger voters will go out and vote for him and he will win out. So we will need to see what happens next but the Square Enix thing is a big hint for things to come.
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Steam is still a HUGE problem as far as japanese games are concerned however, they LOVE to sabotage the good ones as much as they can. 1 or 2 panty shots in a japanese game and they quarantine it as adults only (well technically its listed as "frequent nudity and sexual content" but it put it in the adults only section all the same) to sabotage sales and visibility.
Yet shit like baldurs gate 3 and games from a couple of non japanese countries can still get a proper M rating. (Or sometimes even lower.) And as seen with Tokyo Clanpool Gog can be really stupid as well. Japan may have to look into alternate storefronts or work to get their own. (A playasia style digital one maybe).
Yet shit like baldurs gate 3 and games from a couple of non japanese countries can still get a proper M rating. (Or sometimes even lower.) And as seen with Tokyo Clanpool Gog can be really stupid as well. Japan may have to look into alternate storefronts or work to get their own. (A playasia style digital one maybe).
New layoffs: Vice President of Communications who worked with John Heinecke, and the Executive Creative Director.
The Reunion VII is also theorizing that Hedge Fund 3D Investment Partners (includes J.P. Morgan and BlackRock) is using activist investors to try and oust Square Enix's CEO every time he goes after the Western branch.
The Reunion VII is also theorizing that Hedge Fund 3D Investment Partners (includes J.P. Morgan and BlackRock) is using activist investors to try and oust Square Enix's CEO every time he goes after the Western branch.
I just hope Square Enix makes it through their reboot phase. It's kind of obvious they are trying to break free from the DEI influence with JP Morgan(America) and 3D Pictures which granted it says they are Singapore, but a lot of Chinese companies have moved into Singapore recently.