Square Enix is having the opposite of a banner year. After reporting dismal financial results last March, president Yoichi Wada stepped down, followed by the resignation of Square's USA branch head, Mike Fischer. Now, this week sees Eidos Montreal founder Stephane D'Astous leave his baby, as well as the company that acquired them in 2009.
In successive statements to different gaming websites, D'Astous painted a picture of an Eidos struggling with communication and cultural clashes with Square Enix. Talking to Develop, D'Astous cited irreconcilable differences between himself and Square management as reason for leaving. In later talks with Polygon, he explained how the financial reports from earlier this year hit the company hard. Management decided to reshuffle positions in the company, moving D'Astous away from Eidos Montreal and under Darrel Gallagher, helping manage operations between studios.
D'Astous basically told Polygon the top-down approach Square Enix used was not working out, and he made efforts to explain his concerns to management, but was basically shut out. Seeing that he would no longer be able to make a difference, D'Astous made the difficult decision to leave.
Unfortunately, D'Astous statements lend credence to stories that abound about Thief's troubled production, which D'Astous himself is quick to qualify as being all in the past. D'Astous insists that production on the current game is going without a hitch, and that his former team will be able to release it on time.
It's not clear if D'Astous is just doing damage control with Thief, but whatever the case, Square Enix looks like its struggling to find its direction at the dawn of a new generation of consoles. We hope they can get things together before they start taking truly drastic steps.
