Each time I point out Sq. Enix, I’m bashing them, so I really feel like I have to make clear; I actually love Sq.. I play Closing Fantasy XIV each day, Closing Fantasy VIII is my favorite sport, Kingdom Hearts is a incredible sequence, The Final Remnant is an underrated masterpiece, and I may go on.
However in the case of cellular, they only preserve making so many silly strikes.
And now, these unhealthy concepts are spreading even additional, due to the announcement that Sq. Enix is shuttering its abroad studios to convey improvement primarily to Japan. Consequently, a whole bunch of staff within the UK and the USA are being laid off, which might be unhealthy sufficient. What makes it worse, nevertheless, is that a part of the reason being AI.
Sq. Enix desires to automate round 70% of its QA by the tip of 2027 utilizing Generative AI, which is the actually unhealthy one which makes use of most likely the identical quantity of electrical energy as the entire of Japan does. Hyperbole, maybe, however it’s a enormous power hog, and naturally is a think about these layoffs.
That is the newest in Squares’ try to save cash. We already had a spherical of layoffs final 12 months in Western territories, together with Sq. cancelling initiatives to be extra “selective.”
In 2022, they bought off an enormous vary of studios and IP to Embracer Group, who’ve its personal chequered previous. It has been a sluggish retreat to Japan, which has already value quite a lot of video games and video games, each instantly and not directly.
All of this worries me, not simply because AI will not be what we need to see develop, however as a result of Sq. already mistreats its cellular video games. I can consider two ongoing cellular video games proper now; Closing Fantasy VII: Ever Disaster (Android/iOS), and Closing Fantasy XIV Cell. Ever Disaster is developed in Japan, so hopefully that’s secure.
XIV Cell, nevertheless, is dealt with by one other studio, Lightspeed, in China, which needs to be secure. However, how lengthy earlier than Sq. Enix decides they need the whole lot dealt with in Japan and shuts that, too?
