On the same day that Rockstar delayed Grand Theft Auto VI and Skydance pushed Marvel 1943: Rise of Hydra, Square Enix had its own fair share of misery to dish out to video game fans around the world. The Japanese company began by revealing that quality assurance and debugging should mostly be the job of artificial intelligence, and with that no doubt meaning human jobs are at risk, the company revealed that it is going through layoffs...
As per IGN, it's revealed that hundreds of roles are at risk in the UK and US divisions of Square Enix. The report claims that up to 137 roles may be lost in the UK alone, but that this could be lower depending on how Square Enix conforms with the UK laws that protect workers undergoing redundancy. As for the US, the exact number of layoffs isn't mentioned.
The layoffs were then also discussed in a presentation where it was mentioned that these are the company's latest efforts of "reorganization of overseas organizations" and the change to close "overseas development studios and shift[ing] toward consolidating development functions in Japan."
IGN has since been handed a statement from Square Enix where the layoffs are confirmed. The company explains that this was an "extremely difficult decision" but that it's part of attempts to "strengthen our development structure and to drive a globally integrated marketing strategy," and to "best position the Group's long-term growth."