New Square Enix policy will clamp down on harassers, bigots and “unreasonable” compensation requests

I’ve always wished there was a game workers equivalent of gobbing in an especially rude customer’s cheeseburger. Not that anyone should need the lingering threat of getting served a McLungButter to be polite to service workers, but it seems good to have the option. Possibly spurred on by reality-challenged goblins hounding Final Fantasy 7 Remake Aerith actor Brianna White, Square Enix have shared a new policy outlining how they plan to respond to harassment from customers toward their staff and partners. It’s obviously a vastly more proper and legally sound approach than the aforementioned sandwich tampering, but I support it nonetheless.

“There are instances where certain customers take actions directly or through our support centers, or towards our group executives, employees, partners who are involved in the creation and distribution of our group products and services, that constitute ‘customer harassment,” reads the statement as reported by Very Gary Computing, “such as denial of personality, violence, defamation, intimidation, advance notice of wrongdoing, advance notice of obstruction of business, harassment.”

“Such actions do not only prevent our employees and partners from engaging in their work with a sense of security,” they continue, “but also causes disruptions to other customers. Square Enix will not tolerate harassment and will take action as necessary”. The action in question being to “cease providing support services or to refrain from providing our group’s products and services.”

Here’s their list of absolutely Gaialess behaviour in full:

Harassment:

• Act of violence, violent behavior
• Abusive language, intimidation, coercion, duress, excessive pursuit or reprimand
• Defamation/slander, denial of personality, personal attack (including email, contact in contact form, comment or post on the internet), advance notice of wrongdoing, advance notice of obstruction of business
• Persistent inquiries, repeated visits
• Trespassing by visiting or staying in an office or related facility without permission
• Unlawful restraint including via telephone calls and online inquiries
• Discriminatory speech and conduct regarding race, ethnicity, religion, family origin, occupation, etc.
• Infringement of privacy by taking pictures or making video recordings without consent
• Sexual harassment, stalking, repeated stalking behavior

Undue demand:

• Unreasonable changes or exchange of product or request for monetary compensation
• Unreasonable response or request for an apology (including face-to-face response or request for an apology specifying the position of our employee or partners)
• Excessive requests for the provision of products and services exceeding socially accepted norms
• Unreasonable and excessive demands for punishment of our employees

As VGC highlight, Briana White has previously spoken out online to request that “shippers” please relax. Final Fantasy 7 features a love triangle between her character Aerith, protagonist Cloud, and his childhood friend Tifa – a secondary story element that a certain subset of the audience have historically taken far too seriously, which has apparently spilled over into real-life harassment of White.

Otherwise, I imagine the bulk of this is mostly the kind of boilerplate you find in policies about harassment, rather than responses to any specific incident. Although the line “unreasonable changes or exchange of product or request for monetary compensation” requires a bit of good faith that Square Enix’s idea of “unreasonable” is in line with everyone else’s.

Again, though, it seems mostly like covering bases to me. I imagine the “unreasonable and excessive demands for punishment of our employees” line rings depressingly true to anyone who’s ever seen the sheer catastrophic levels of entitlement floating around on social media from people who feel that buying one (1) videogame gives them the right to attempt to purge workers they disagree with. Love to be a human on the internet in 2025. Love it.