Square Enix to shift overseas development to Japan, cut Western roles

Square Enix announced on Thursday that it is implementing a major restructuring of its overseas operations that will put scores of development and publishing roles in the United Kingdom and United States at risk as the company shifts development functions to Japan and accelerates the use of generative artificial intelligence. Company executives told staff in an all‑hands meeting that roles across nearly all areas of its Western business will be affected and that affected employees were being notified this week.

Internal materials and investor presentations outline the plan as a consolidation of overseas publishing and development into Japan, part of a broader effort to “strengthen development capabilities from a Groupwide perspective and to optimize resource allocation,” the company said in a statement. The presentation also set a target to automate 70 percent of quality assurance and debugging tasks by the end of 2027, and describes a joint initiative with researchers at the University of Tokyo to develop QA automation using generative AI. Square Enix said it expects the reorganization to help drive a globally integrated marketing strategy and to better position the Group for...