with FF13 they can give those people their jobs back LOL!

Wouldn't surprise me. They've fucked up something fierce this generation. I've been wondering how long until they start swinging the layoff axe (watch your head, Wada-san!).

Could be Atlus, too.

With the recent success of DQIX and Batman: Arkham Asylum this doesnt seem likely. They are probably just discarding the Crystal Bearers team since the game is finished.

Does Atlus JP even have 200 people on staff? I know they're rather small, and I really don't think that anyone could classify them as large...

That's what I meant.

Who else could actually lay off that many staff members without essentially shutting down than SE though?

It would seem logical in a sort of messed up way to lay off staff after FFXIII went Gold since there was a pretty substantial number of workers assigned to that game.

You would think that they would wait until AFTER the game was released to see who stays and who goes based upon initial reception and sales unless SE simply didn't have enough work for all those individuals post FFXIII (seems unlikely unless projects that were in the works have been canceled).

If anything, one would think they'd shut down one of the other teams responsible for producing one of the lackluster selling JRPGs on the 360 they've released so far, but who knows?

If it has to be any company, my hope is Capcom.

It sounds evil saying that, but honestly I wish they would go back to being awesome like they were before this generation.

How do you live with yourself?

The problem with Capcom is that they've essentially transformed from being game developers to game publishers with a lot of IPs, outsourcing games to other studios including some of their better IPs.