Stephane D'Astous, the founder and general manager of Eidos Montreal, has officially resigned from the company. D’Astous had some harsh comments for his now-former employer following his resignation.
Eidos Montreal is, of course, a company acquired in 2009 by Square Enix. Eidos Montreal is a game development company known for Deus Ex: Human Revolution (my PC Per Game of the Year), Tomb Raider, and the upcoming Thief title. Founder D’Astous felt confident in his team’s ability to make good games, but felt that Square Enix displayed a lack of courage and leadership that caused Square Enix’s sales of those games to falter. The Eidos Montreal founder further indicated that there are communications issues between Square Enix and Eidos Montreal, and that Eidos Montreal has not been integrated well into owner Square Enix. He had a different idea of what should be done to return the company to profitability and the differences between D’Astous and Square Enix’s plans were too dissimilar.
Eidos Montreal will continue development of Thief.
Specifically, Stephane D’Astous was quoted by Eurogamer in saying:
"The lack of leadership, lack of courage and the lack of communication were so evident, that I wasn't able to conduct my job correctly. I realized that our differences were irreconcilable, and that the best decision was unfortunately to part ways."
Eidos Montreal will continue to develop Thief, Final Fantasy XV, and other games under new leadership. D’Astous did express regret for not being able to be a part of Thief, but beyond the games it is apparent that D’Astous is not happy with Square Enix’s management of Eidos Montreal.
What do you think about D'Astous' departure?
“If you want to make enemies,
“If you want to make enemies, try to change something.”
Woodrow Wilson
i understand where he’s
i understand where he’s coming from. i’ve worked for companies where communication was simply non existent. it made for a very difficult work environment. i felt like going the extra mile and trying to communicate well with outside branches made me the bad guy. it was altogether quite toxic.
sounds like a Japan/French
sounds like a Japan/French communication issue,
Working with Japan can be tough if you do not understand or try to understand the environment.
I imagine it is especially tough if you are French Canadian and expect to operate as French Canadian even though you are now owned by the Japanese
I honestly believe this could have gone much better- however both sides needed to work on the situation- Japan appears as if it tried – otherwise it would have replaced the head of the studio with a Japanese (like we do in Japan with US types)
shame he left with so much anger and burnt his bridges like he did