Former Eidos Montreal Head Elaborates on His Problems with Square Enix Management

During a phone interview with Polygon, Stephane D’Astous, founder and general manager of Eidos Montreal until recently, elaborated on the reasons that ultimately led him to resign and leave Square Enix. Here’s a snip:

“Obviously our last fiscal year was not exactly a great one,” he 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.

“It was unfortunate that the senior staff of the studios didn’t really participate in the new strategic plan.”

D’Astous doesn’t contest the need for change. That Square-Enix needed to do something drastic was obvious, he said.

“We brought three triple As to the market, and despite that great line up and those great critical reviews we still managed not to respect our financial goals, so that really shook up a lot of people,” he said. “When the fiscal results came out official we were all surprised.”

Square Enix, D’Astous said, “has some things to learn about how to sell their games.”

…

“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.”

Had Square Enix’s leadership worked with the company’s head of studios and head of departments to come up with a plan together, D’Astous said he would have stuck around. But the top-down approach left him with no confidence in the company, he said.

A few words on the widely reported Thief development troubles too, given I suspect there’s a significant overlap between our readership and fans of the series:

“Thief has been a long project,” he said. “Some of your articles (about the game’s development) were a little bit harsh. If you take into perspective every different element, it was blown out of proportion in some aspect. Every triple A has its up and downs and I guess we were exposed more to the public when we were at the bottom of the barrel. That was a long time ago.

“The new team and producer has turned the corner and they’re doing a good job. That is one of my biggest regrets, not to be at the head of the studio that would deliver Thief.”