Beautiful Game Studios to be restructured

Beautiful Game Studios, the developer responsible for recent Championship Manager titles and owned by Square Enix Europe, is to be restructured, GamesIndustry.biz has learned.

It is understood that around 80 per cent of posts will either be cut or relocated to China in a cost-cutting exercise, while Roy Meredith will continue to lead the studio, and the ChampMan brand will remain headquartered in London.

Square Enix Europe wouldn't be drawn on precise details, but did admit that changes were to be made, releasing the following statement to GamesIndustry.biz today:

"We have taken a decision to re-focus our vision for the franchise and redefine our business model to build a successful commercial future for the Championship Manager brand," said a spokesperson. "Our current business model does not allow us to compete in a fast-changing industry with any degree of flexibility or commercial confidence.

"To achieve this, we will be re-structuring Beautiful Game Studios, which will regrettably bring with it unavoidable job losses. We aim to have this completed before the end of this calendar year."

Yoichi Wada, global president of Square Enix, recently told GamesIndustry.biz that the publisher would continue to try new approaches to the Championship Manager brand, but that it was too early to tell if the recent 'pay-what-you-think-it's-worth' approach had been a success or failure.

While critical reception for the ChampMan brand has been generally lukewarm since its original developer, Sports Interactive, split with the publisher to produce Football Manager, this year's iteration of the title was rated 8/10 on Eurogamer.