Another Japanese game company is asking staff to voluntarily quit their jobs amidst financial losses
Only a few months ago, Final Fantasy: Brave Exvius and Aster Tatariqus developer Gumi announced that it would be letting go of 80 of its employees through buyouts. Another Japanese company called Enish is now following suit, soliciting voluntary resignations from its staff (source: GameBiz).
Enish is a mobile game developer and publisher known in Japan for titles such as De:Lithe Last Memories and Attack on Titan: Brave Order. The company was founded in 2009, but it has been in a deficit for nine consecutive fiscal years since 2015. Seeing as Enish’s interim financial reports for 2024 cited a net loss of 745 million yen (about $4.9 million), it is very likely that they will continue to be in the red for the 10th year in a row.
On December 10, the company announced that it will be asking employees belonging to unprofitable departments to resign voluntarily. These resignations will be regarded as “initiated by the employer” and those who apply will receive severance packages and support in finding new work. On the other hand, Enish seems to be in a hurry to complete the process, as its employees have been given only until December 24 to agree to the buyouts and are expected to leave as soon as December 31.
By downsizing its unprofitable departments, Enish hopes to streamline resources and overturn its unfavorable financial circumstances. Japan’s labor laws make dismissing employees complicated and time-consuming (no “on the spot” firing like in the US). Therefore, the methods companies like Enish and Gumi are using are likely the closest a Japanese employer can get to carrying out mass layoffs. This was especially apparent in Gumi’s case, as the company conducted layoffs in its overseas branches while settling for buyouts in its Japanese offices.
