Square-Enix CEO Resigns
Posted on March 26th, 2013 by Kassidy KeareyFiled under Square-Enix
The president and representative director of Square Enix, Yoichi Wada, is stepping down from his position following the company revising its financial forecast.
Wada’s resignation is expected to come into effect from June, at which point Yosuke Matsuda, who joined the company in 2001, will replace him.
The move comes as part of a financial revision for the company, in which it’s revealed that Square Enix now “expects to incur extraordinary loss in the settlement of the accounts for its fiscal year ending March 31, 2013.”
While the company had been predicting net income losses of ¥3.5 billion, this has now been revised to ¥13 billion following a decline in Western retail and digital sales.
The report explains the revision comes, “due to slow sales of major console game titles in North American and European markets. The Company is also experiencing sluggish performance of its arcade machine business.
“In addition to these factors, the Company expects to incur extraordinary loss about loss from restructuring in the settlement of the account for its fiscal year ending March 31, 2013.”
Wada joined Square in April 2000 and rose to the rank of CEO in December of that year. When Square merged with Enix, he took up the title of president and representative director of the new company and oversaw the acquisitions of both Taito and Eidos Interactive.
Source – IGN
Well, I can’t say that I’m overly sad at this. As far as the direction of a lot of the classic RPG series have been concerned, developments since the Squenix merger have been lack-lustre. I very much doubt that there will be a change of focus with this departure, and the chances of anything good coming to those franchises that we love so much are slim… but who knows.
March 28th, 2013 at 5:50 am
Good. Honestly, with the tripe that S-E has released over the past 15 years I am not the lesat bit surprised, nor am I the least bit sad to hear that they’re 15 billion yen in the hole for the last FY. Granted, 15 billion yen is roughly $475 but that’s neither here nor there.
Should S-E get it through their heads that we, the gamers, the ones with money to spend on their products, don’t care at all about how pretty their soulless games look then I don’t know anything at all about entertainment. Look at the games that Square made that are held up as their most influential, their most beloved by fans: FFIV, Secret Of Mana, Chrono Trigger & FFVII; not a one of them was made in the past 15 years. Furthermore, while those games were each technologically advanced for their day, they are the mechanical typewriters to today’s Mac Book Pro. The fact is that I would take archaic graphics, weapon orb glitches and slow down in an RPG if Square would give me characters and a story to CARE ABOUT AGAIN!
Sorry, you can keep the new MMORPG FFXIII-17 or whatever they’re up to now. They are nameless, soulless, nymph-women characters who wear feathers, not armor and frolick from one mindless task to the next in very beautiful worlds that simply do not feel real. THAT is Square’s problem and THAT is what must be addressed to make this once great company functional again. It’s a very simple concept that every business must adhere to: give the customer what they want. We want games with depth. We want the story to engage and challenge us. We want to care about and empathize with the characters and their struggles. We want those characters to be ones whom we identify with, not ones who are impossibly beautiful and aloof. We want to be entertained and to escape; after all, that’s why we play, right?
Should Square realize this. Should they decide to engage the consumer directly, ask us what we want, and then actually deliver, then this internal move within the company could be a very good thing. Time will tell.
April 3rd, 2013 at 1:05 am
Not expecting much of Square-Enix regardless. I used to love every game that came from Squaresoft back in the days (FF series up to 9, Mana series up to SD3, Chrono Trigger, Secret of Evermore, FFT) and I love love LOVE Enix’ Valkyrie Profile. This were games I’d replay over and over again. But ever since the merger, something was lost. These days, I have high hopes for Sakaguchi’s new company Mistwalker.