Square Enix Confirms Layoffs, Restructuring in N. American, European Publishing Operations – News

In an earnings report released Thursday for the six-month period ending September 30, 2025, Square Enix The company told investors it would lay off employees in its North American and European publishing operations as part of a restructuring of its overseas operations.

The restructuring will involve closing overseas development studios and moving toward consolidating development functions in Japan. The company plans to “optimize the allocation of resources to maximize the value generated by intellectual property.” To this end, it plans to consolidate the HD Games publishing organization from 11 divisions to 4 divisions.

The company expects restructuring charges of 11.8 billion yen (approximately $76.8 million) in the fiscal year ending in March 2026. After reorganization, Square Enix Annual cost savings are expected to exceed 3 billion yen (approximately US$19.5 million). The presentation states Square Enix Restructuring initiatives are underway to “further strengthen global publishing capabilities and improve operational efficiencies.”

IGN reported Friday that Square Enix By the end of the week, an unknown number of employees will be laid off in the United States, with about 137 jobs at risk in the United Kingdom. It noted that this number may be smaller because Square Enix Under UK law, redundancy consultation is required.

Square Enix have Sell Crystal Dynamics, Eidos-Montreal, Square Enix Montreal, as well as several related intellectual property rights will be transferred to the Embracer Group in May 2022.

Square Enix The company announced in the same presentation on Thursday that it was implementing initiatives to leverage artificial intelligence (AI) to improve productivity. The company said it is “conducting joint research with Japan’s Matsuo Laboratory” University of Tokyoaiming to improve the efficiency of the game development process through artificial intelligence technology. “A joint research team consisting of Square Enix Engineers and researchers at Matsuo Iwasawa Labs are undertaking the project, which aims to automate 70% of QA and debugging tasks in game development by the end of 2027. The company is also hosting a business idea competition centered around AI applications and is developing projects based on several selected ideas.

Square Enix One of 18 Japanese manga and animation companies publish A joint statement last week criticized the use of OpenAI’s Sora2 AI video and audio generation system. Together with the Content Overseas Distribution Association (CODA) and its member companies, they determined that Sora2 was producing content similar to works and images originally created by these companies.

Square Enix The report stated that net sales in the first half of fiscal year 2026 were 133.8 billion yen (approximately US$871 million), a decrease of 15% from the same period last year. The company also reported operating income of 27.2 billion yen (approximately $177 million), a 29% increase from last year.

Square Enix Enix Corporation was established in September 1975. Square was founded in 1983. The merger between Enix and Square was completed in November 2002 sony In 2001, it acquired 18.6% of Square shares.

Source: Square Enixof website, type (Todd Spangler), IGN (Rebecca Valentine)