Ex-Eidos Boss Slams Square Enix

Ex-Eidos Montreal boss Stephane D’Astous, who left the studio last Friday, has come out firing shots at his former parent company.

Eidos Montreal is the development studio behind Deus Ex: Human Revolution and the upcoming Thief reboot. Their parent company, Square Enix, develops games both in Japan and in the west under their Eidos branch.

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In an interview with Polygon today, D’Astous slammed his former employers, blaming Square Enix Europe boss Phil Rogers and other leadership at the company for miscommunication and an inability to sell the number of games that they wanted to sell.

“Obviously our last fiscal year was not exactly a great one,” D’Astous said. “I think that senior executives at [Square Enix Europe] almost started to panic and it was difficult to know what type of changes we needed to do, and it took a lot of time before some information came out from HQ.”

The company has a “new strategic plan,” D’Astous told Polygon, but he disagrees with the details.

“Square Enix is in a tight spot because there are compromises that are made, investments that are made that should not have been and things that they didn’t invest in but should have,” he said. “Communication is very lacking.”

D’Astous said he had threatened to leave if things didn’t improve. “It has been in discussion for the last few months,” he said. “I’ve been really communicating my concerns, communicating my suggestions, my recommendations, since March. It has been quite tense.”

The last year has not been kind to Square Enix—the Japanese publisher has suffered massive financial losses, failed to meet sales expectations, and faced criticism for strange moves like the cash-gobbling Final Fantasy: All The Bravest. Back in March, then-president Yoichi Wada stepped down as the company went through massive reorganization.

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Things seemed to be taking a turn for the better at E3, at least for their Japanese division—Square Enix’s showing this year was for many one of the highlights of E3 2013

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When reached by Kotaku, Square Enix declined to comment for this story.