Pluvius's Journal: FF7 Merchandise Reflects on Square's HR Practices

There is currently an eBay auction for a leather jacket, one of less than a hundred which were given to Squaresoft employees to celebrate the release of the PC port of Final Fantasy VII, bearing the Squaresoft and FF7 logos. What's notable about this piece of memorabilia is not its rarity or subject matter, however, but the story behind it. From the auction description: "It is a physical representation of the HR/Marketing department at Squaresoft, Inc. deciding that the Quality Assurance team didn't count as actual employees of the company. ... Everyone who was an employee of the company who was NOT in Quality Assurance got one. This included the Quality Assurance Manager AND the temp receptionist who had been there a total of 3 months. ... The QA staff then asked for the manufacturer, so they could just order extra and pay for them out of their own pockets, and the QA staff was rebuffed a final time with the response, 'They're too expensive for you guys to pay for.'" With the North American release of Final Fantasy VII Advent Children looming, this is an interesting look at the developer back when FF7 was a relatively new game. One wonders if Square's treatment of QA engineers has changed since merging with Enix.