Square Enix, the developer-publisher behind this year's Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, is set to lay off an unspecified number of employees across its U.S. and European offices, which are headquartered in California and the United Kingdom, respectively, this week. According to those in attendance, Square Enix president Takashi Kiryu delivered this news in a company-wide meeting, as first reported by VideoGamesChronicle. 

Layoffs such as these were suspected following Square Enix's latest financial earnings report, which includes a three-year company reboot plan with an "aggressive" multiplatform release strategy after a slide mentioned "structural reforms." You can see the slide below: 

As you can see above, as part of Square Enix's plan to rebuild its overseas business divisions from the ground up, the company "began optimizing costs at its European and American offices via structural reforms." After more than 10,000 layoffs across game studios and publishers this year, it's easy to read between the lines – structural reforms sound a lot like "layoffs," and now VGC has confirmed as much. 

The publication reports these layoffs will happen over the course of the next month, with those affected set to find out this week. The total number of expected layoffs is not known, but VGC's sources say staff was told it will mostly affect those working in publishing, IT, and Square Enix's Collective indie games division. 

U.K. employees laid off will enter into a "one-month consultancy period" in accordinace with local U.K. law, while affected U.S. staff could be out of their jobs potentially before the end of the month. 

These layoffs join a string of other disheartening 2024 layoffs and closures, which now total more than 10,000 in just the first five months of the year. 

Earlier this month, Xbox closed four Bethesda studios, including Hi-Fi Rush developer Tango Gameworks and Redfall studio Arkane Austin. Take-Two Interactive closed Rollerdrome studio Roll7 and Kerbal Space Program 2 studio Intercept Games alongside major layoffs to its indie-publisher Private Division label. That same week, we learned Deliver Us Mars developer Keoken Interactive had laid off nearly its entire staff. 

Elsewhere in the year, EA laid off roughly 670 employees across all departments, resulting in the cancellation of Respawn's Star Wars FPS game. PlayStation laid off 900 employees across Insomniac, Naughty Dog, Guerrilla, and more, closing down London Studio in the process, too. The day before, Until Dawn developer Supermassive Games announced it laid off 90 employees. 

At the end of January, we learned Embracer Group had canceled a new Deus Ex game in development at Eidos-Montréal and laid off 97 employees in the process. Also in January, Destroy All Humans remake developer Black Forest Games reportedly laid off 50 employees and Microsoft announced it was laying off 1,900 employees across its Xbox, Activision Blizzard, and ZeniMax teams, as well. Outriders studio People Can Fly laid off more than 30 employees in January, and League of Legends company Riot Games laid off 530 employees. 

Lords of the Fallen Publisher CI Games laid off 10 percent of its staff, Unity will lay off 1,800 people by the end of March, and Twitch laid off 500 employees. 

We also learned that Discord had laid off 170 employees, that layoffs happened at PTW, a support studio that's worked with companies like Blizzard and Capcom, and that SteamWorld Build company, Thunderful Group, let go of roughly 100 people. Dead by Daylight developer Behaviour Interactive also reportedly laid off 45 people, too. 

[Source: VideoGamesChronicle]

Update, 5/13/24:

The Rogue Prince of Persia, the upcoming roguelike from Dead Cells developer Evil Empire, will double-jump into Early Access on May 27. This new release date follows a delay from the original May 14 release date as a result of Hades II, which is gracing the latest cover of Game Informer, launching into Early Access last week. 

Evil Empire delayed The Rogue Prince of Persia's Early Access launch to give its team members, their mothers, and players around the world more time with Hades II. The team said at the time The Rogue Prince of Persia would still hit Early Access this month, and now we know it's May 27. 

The Rogue Prince of Persia's new release date is 27th May! If you didn't see our previous post, the TLDR is to give people time to play Hades 2, including us?
But if Silksong shadow-drops in the next two weeks we're burning the whole thing down!
Anyway, we can also reveal The… pic.twitter.com/ZQM3l5DcBI

— Evil Empire (@Studio_Evil) May 13, 2024

The original story continues below...

Original story, 5/10/24:

Dead Cells developer Evil Empire has delayed its upcoming roguelike, The Rogue Prince of Persia, because of Hades II. Originally due out on Tuesday, May 14, in PC Early Access, Evil Empire has delayed the game to later this month to give potential players more time with Hades II, which is another roguelike that hit Early Access this week (and it's also gracing the latest cover of Game Informer Magazine). 

"So it's been a bit of a crazy week for us," a statement from Evil Empire reads. "It all started when a little game called Hades II released – you might have have heard of it? Seeing as everyone and their mum is playing that game (including our entire team...and their mums), we have decided to let people have their fun with it before we release The Rogue Prince of Persia. 

"We will still be releasing in May and will be back with a precise date on Monday. While we have every confidence in The Rogue Prince of Persia, it's not every day that a game in the same genre as you, which is one of the most anticipated upcoming games of 2024, will release into Early Access a week before you plan to do the same. We are not prideful enough to ignore the implications of that, and we truly believe that this short delay is the best decision for us and our Early Access journey." 

The team says this extra time will be used to polish The Rogue Prince of Persia even more, add "even more cool things," and fix some bugs. It also notes the Day One patch for the game was getting big and this extra time will give the team more time to test it (and lower the team's stress as a result).

Game Informer went hands-on with the game recently and loved what we played – you can read our preview impressions of The Rogue Prince of Persia here. If you're curious how it looks in action, watch this New Gameplay Today all about The Rogue Prince of Persia. For more, check out our discussion with Evil Empire about the difference between a roguelike and a rogue-lite. 

Are you going to check out The Rogue Prince of Persia later this month? Let us know in the comments below!

Atlus has announced that the original version of Shin Megami Tensei V will be delisted from the Nintendo eShop on June 13. That’s one day before the launch of its expanded definitive edition, Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance.

On June 13, Shin Megami Tensei V’s Digital Standard and Digital Deluxe editions and all of its DLC will be removed from the eShop. However, owners of the physical and digital versions will still be able to play and redownload this content after it’s been delisted. SMT V first launched in November 2021, and Atlus declared it the best-selling game in the series in January 2022.

The original Shin Megami Tensei V Digital Standard, Digital Deluxe, and all associated DLC will be delisted from the Nintendo eShop on June 13.

Previously purchased physical and digital versions will remain playable and re-downloadable after this date.

— Official ATLUS West (@Atlus_West) May 13, 2024

Atlus has not provided a reason for this move, but given the timing, it’s likely to avoid confusion with the upcoming SMTV: Vengeance, which is the same game (including all DLC) but with quality-of-life improvements and an additional storyline that introduces new locations and demons. Think of it as the Persona 5 Royal of SMT V. Vengeance will also be multi-platform, whereas the original game was a Switch exclusive, and it will run for the same price as the original Standard version, $59.99.

Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance launches on June 14. You can read our extended preview of the game here, and you can also check out our review of the original SMT V here.