14 DAY TRIAL // Electronic Arts isn't the only huge game company to feel the sting of the financial slope. Square Enix is also experiencing some troubles, and, just like EA did with its smaller studios, Enix has begun to cut down on its ties. The company feels like it would be a little bit too much to start chopping away at the local employees, so, instead, it's making its cutbacks from an off-shore developer. The one that was targeted by the publisher was Beautiful Game Studios, the UK-based studio that handles the Championship Manager series. After the final trims were made, it looks like 80 percent of the jobs were cut or relocated.
But what's left of the studio will continue to work on the CM games. The developer released on official statement to several British websites, including GI.biz, and said that, “We have taken a decision to re-focus our vision for the franchise and redefine our business model to build a successful commercial future for the Championship Manager brand.” The statement further read that, “Our current business model does not allow us to compete in a fast-changing industry with any degree of flexibility or commercial confidence.”
It's true that managers aren't the most popular titles in the industry, but it's a bit unfortunate, if not downright strange, that it chose this particular year to make the cutbacks. It's true that this has been a bad year for all business, including games, but the series did a lot better with its latest installment than it did before. At any rate, the official statement from the company concluded that, “To achieve this, we will be re-structuring Beautiful Game Studios, which will regrettably bring with it unavoidable job losses. We aim to have this completed before the end of this calendar year.”
Beautiful Game Studios was founded by Eidos in 2003, which in turn became the propriety of Square Enix earlier this year. After its costly purchase of the UK company, along with what proved to be a downward spiral of the economy, Enix was forced to make several adjustments to cut its losses. The company shifted its predictions concerning its profit for the first half of the fiscal year to 2.6 billion yen or $28.4 million, a 65-percent drop from its previous estimates. It also fired large numbers of employees from Square Square Enix Co. Ltd. and Taito Corp, other studios under its management.