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Final Fantasy developer Square Enix makes working from home a permanent option for employees

Casey Baseel Nov 27, 2020
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Because if your home is your castle, doesn’t that mean it’s the perfect place to create a fantasy RPG?

As Japan’s preeminent role-playing video game developer, Square Enix is constantly developing new systems for Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, and the company’s many other franchises. Its latest system, though, isn’t a gameplay one, but a workstyle one.

Like many companies, Square Enix has shifted a lot of its staff to telecommuting during the coronavirus pandemic. As of December 1, though, work-from-home options are going to become a permanent part of working at Square Enix, even after the pandemic ends.

The company publicly announced the new policy on November 25, saying that moving forward it will have two systems: home-base, in which employees work from home at least three days a week, and office-base, in which they commute into Square Enix’s headquarters in downtown Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward with the same frequency. It plans for home-base to become the default for both executives and rank-and-file employees of Square Enix Holdings and its subsidiary Luminous Productions, with office-base status applied on a basis of necessity of on-site work, as determined by specific projects and team leaders, with workers’ status changeable on a monthly basis.

▼ Some of Square Enix’s home-based staff’s home office setups

Square Enix says the goal of the new policy is to provide workers with an improved work/life balance while simultaneously boosting productivity, with the added bonus of allowing them to employ staff members who aren’t in a position to commute to Shinjuku on a daily basis. That would be a definite win-win, especially for a company in a creative field where employee morale can have a significant effect on the final product, and the company’s outline for the policy includes its vision that it will allow it to “ensure the necessary creativity and productivity to deliver the highest-quality entertainment.”

It’s worth noting that the shift isn’t coming at a time when Square Enix is resting on its laurels, either. In addition to Final Fantasy XVI (seen in the preview video above) and the second installment of the Final Fantasy VII Remake sub-series, both of which will be running on the just-released PlayStation 5, the developer is also currently working on new releases for its The World Ends with You and Nier franchises. Still, Square Enix is confident it can pull all of that off with a staff that’s mostly working from home, and for December roughly 80 percent of its employees will be home-based.

Source: Square Enix via Hachima Kiko
Top image: YouTube/スクウェア・エニックス
Insert image: Square Enix
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