David-Anfossi
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Square Enix appoints new heads of NA and EU studios
Square Enix today announced changes in the management makeup of its North American and European studios. These announcements come after a fiscal year spent in the red, and layoffs in both North America and Europe as part of a "corporate restructuring." All North American and European studios underneath the Square Enix umbrella will now be overseen by Darrell Gallagher, the company's new Head of Studios. Prior to receiving his assuredly jeweled crown and gold-plated throne, Gallagher was Studio Head of Crystal Dynamics – a position which he will continue to fill for the time being, in conjunction with his new duties. Eidos Montreal will now be helmed by David Anfossi, former Deus Ex: Human Revolution executive producer. Meanwhile, Square Enix Montreal will be "built into a centre of excellence for game development on smart devices (primarily tablets)" under the guidance of Patrick Naud, according to the announcement.
Eidos Montreal fesses up to poor boss fights in Deus Ex: Human Revolution
Even though the recent release of "The Missing Link" DLC featured a more appropriate boss encounter, the majority of Deus Ex: Human Revolution's boss fights force players to forgo whichever strategy they employed throughout the game and, you know, just shoot 'em in the face. Unless that is your strategy, in which case all we have to say is: you monster. Eidos Montréal producer David Anfossi told Edge that farming out the boss fights to Grip Entertainment was a mistake -- not because Grip failed, but because the implementation and design of boss encounters was poor. "We knew that it would be a weakness for the game, that we had to make a compromise to deliver it [on] two levels. First, the boss fights were forced, which is not the Deus Ex experience. Second, there is no mix [of] solutions to tackle the boss fights, which is not Deus Ex either. We knew that before the release of the game, but there had to be some compromise. It [was] our decision." That's not to say Anfossi isn't proud of Deus Ex -- he's quite content with the hacking, stealth, social and combat aspects of the game -- but if he had a chance to do it all again, he'd handle the boss fights differently rather than taking them out entirely. "There are two options: no boss fights, or do boss fights correctly. I'm pretty sure that now we have the knowledge to do it correctly."
