Square Enix president steps down following announcement of expected 10 billion Yen loss.

 

 

Square Enix president Yoichi Wada has resigned from the company.

 

 

Yoichi Wada will be replaced by Yousuke Matsuda, who will take over running the publisher.

The resignation follows the announcement that the company expects to make an "extraordinary loss" in revenue for the current financial year, ending March 31.

Square Enix has also announced plans to undergo major restructuring of its development policy, organisational structure, and business models. Due to the costs of this restructuring, Square Enix expects to post a loss of 10 billion Yen for the financial year ending March 31.

 

Thanks to GameSpot.

 

 

oh my..  still 

thanks for everything Yoichi Wada (`・ω・´)ゞ

heckaz loss bro

This may sound cruel but...this could actually work out for the company, because thus far the direction they've been heading wasn't that great. Loved Wada, but hopefully his successor heals the company and makes it great again. =)

Edited March 26, 201312 yr by Noby Raghavan

I'm kinda happy and sad at the same time

 

Sad because he actually saved the company from going bankrupt after that shitty movie FF The Spirit Within

 

Happy that he's leaving because of his recent stupid decision that sank the company to oblivion 

 

Sooo a part of me is sad but the other part is saying

 

Let's hope Square Enix gets it's act together. I love the company to death.

 

Good luck Matsuda. May the Force be with you.

Dang that sucks.

theres so many thigns square is doing wrong right now. not even  counting the lack of PC support for final fantasy and KH games. lets begin

 

for starters they still havnt finished vs13 which is a huge development moneyhole, and instead of trying to wrap it up ship it and get money back for development they keep relasing sequels to FF13 which noboddy is asking for.

 

than they keep putting the KH franchise on hold because of VS13 and releasing side games instead. and while i enjoy a lot of them some just arnt that fun and the plot is getting more and more conveluted. and while thats not bad they cant even keep the plot together in a cohearent manner. 3D still left a lot of confusing questions in my head about the time travel.

 

now heres the part i love thats killing them

 

they arn't supporting PC gamers with FF or KH! for the love of god i think every other franchise they have is on PC already. the controlls would work fine in the games AND PC sales will get them a lot more revenue than console sales because their is no physical packaging, they could have amde a ton of money on FF7 being on PC but decided to keep it excluse to the square website which probobly killed sales.. and PC aside for a moment keeping 1 franchise console exclusive for no hardware reason is just going to kill them with a much more limited fanbase.

 

oh and heres the part i love. instead of giving PC gamers a real KH game they want to give us a watered down browser game, which will cost them MORE money for upkeep with running servers than a port would ever cost.

 

hopefully the new CEO fixes the company

Oh my gosh. I really hope FFVS13 production is not delayed so we don't have to wait longer for KH3.

Im worried about how this will effect Kingdom Hearts, Final Fantasy, Parasite Eve and other series i like from Square Enix :[.

Kinda expected it, the way they release games and run they're company isn't the best

 

theres so many thigns square is doing wrong right now. not even  counting the lack of PC support for final fantasy and KH games. lets begin

 

for starters they still havnt finished vs13 which is a huge development moneyhole, and instead of trying to wrap it up ship it and get money back for development they keep relasing sequels to FF13 which noboddy is asking for.

 

than they keep putting the KH franchise on hold because of VS13 and releasing side games instead. and while i enjoy a lot of them some just arnt that fun and the plot is getting more and more conveluted. and while thats not bad they cant even keep the plot together in a cohearent manner. 3D still left a lot of confusing questions in my head about the time travel.

 

now heres the part i love thats killing them

 

they arn't supporting PC gamers with FF or KH! for the love of god i think every other franchise they have is on PC already. the controlls would work fine in the games AND PC sales will get them a lot more revenue than console sales because their is no physical packaging, they could have amde a ton of money on FF7 being on PC but decided to keep it excluse to the square website which probobly killed sales.. and PC aside for a moment keeping 1 franchise console exclusive for no hardware reason is just going to kill them with a much more limited fanbase.

 

oh and heres the part i love. instead of giving PC gamers a real KH game they want to give us a watered down browser game, which will cost them MORE money for upkeep with running servers than a port would ever cost.

 

hopefully the new CEO fixes the company

I agree with the FF13 thing (and Versus). They keep making sequels for arguably the worst FF game, it's not really helping the FF series. They want the same hype they had with FF7, well FF13 will not get that hype. And they keep funding a game that has yet to be released.

Square Enix is losing money. Inevitably, this will lead to changes within the company. What changes would you guys most like to see? Here's my list:

 

1. New creative talent is needed. Promote outside of the corporate hierarchy, overpay for talent from competitors, do what you've gotta do. But Nomura and Toryama are not the men you want leading production of you into this next hardware cycle. I'm not saying fire them or anything, but they haven't shown that they're able to manage large scale productions efficiently or tell stories that resonate with wide audiences. Keep them on smaller, more focused projects.

 

2. Diversification of Japanese development is needed. I don't think it's viable to be a JRPG company anymore, not if you intend to compete as a top level publisher. Go all in on mobile development, or go in on Nintendo style lifestyle products, go nuts. But continuing to make the sorts of games you've always made is not going to serve you all that well. And find a way to lower those JRPG production budgets too. Atlus makes JRPGs without breaking the bank... maybe you don't need every single game you release to look best in class. It's nice, but maybe not worth the money.

 

3. Lastly, a request for something that shouldn't be changed:

Don't blame your Western developers. That's the GOOD part of your company right now. You complain about Tomb Raider only selling 3.4 million copies in 2 weeks? Really? How did the last four Kingdom Hearts games do? Parasite Eve? Dragon Quest? Bravely Default? Really the only games Square Enix Japan has made that have sold better outside Japan this gen are FF XIII and FF XIII-2.

Edited March 26, 201312 yr by Tails

 

Square Enix is losing money. Inevitably, this will lead to changes within the company. What changes would you guys most like to see? Here's my list:

 

1. New creative talent is needed. Promote outside of the corporate hierarchy, overpay for talent from competitors, do what you've gotta do. But Nomura and Toryama are not the men you want leading production of you into this next hardware cycle. I'm not saying fire them or anything, but they haven't shown that they're able to manage large scale productions efficiently or tell stories that resonate with wide audiences. Keep them on smaller, more focused projects.

 

2. Diversification of Japanese development is needed. I don't think it's viable to be a JRPG company anymore, not if you intend to compete as a top level publisher. Go all in on mobile development, or go in on Nintendo style lifestyle products, go nuts. But continuing to make the sorts of games you've always made is not going to serve you all that well. And find a way to lower those JRPG production budgets too. Atlus makes JRPGs without breaking the bank... maybe you don't need every single game you release to look best in class. It's nice, but maybe not worth the money.

 

3. Lastly, a request for something that shouldn't be changed:

Don't blame your Western developers. That's the GOOD part of your company right now. You complain about Tomb Raider only selling 3.4 million copies in 2 weeks? Really? How did the last four Kingdom Hearts games do? Parasite Eve? Dragon Quest? Bravely Default? Really the only games Square Enix Japan has made that have sold better outside Japan this gen are FF XIII and FF XIII-2.

 

The JRPG series games dont need to change. as i've said they need to put them out on more consoles.obveously they wont sell well if their playerbase is limited to just 1 console, they need to reach a wider audience and keeping the games limited with avalibility is stupid for a 3rd party developer where hardware isnt an issue. and as i've said putting the games on PC alone would be a HUGE move for them, steam has a huge community and they wouldn't have to pay for physical packaging.

 

although i do think the people higher up in the company need to put their foot down with products that arn't  selling well. anyone could have told you making a third FF13 game would be a bad idea.

 

if they could just make smarter descisions and reach a wider audience with their JRPG games the company would be doing so much better

Im worried about how this will effect Kingdom Hearts, Final Fantasy, Parasite Eve and other series i like from Square Enix :[.

 

*affect

 

Don't worry, it shouldn't. You've seen all the releases we're getting later this year.

Wow, surprised he decided to resign...  A lot of people seemed to hate him, but I actually sort of like what he's done for the company.  He's certainly introduced some amazing games in his time.

 

I hope his successor lives up to expectations.

Someone had to take the fall.

Let's just hope that Square continues to stand strong.  It's one of my favorite video game companies of all time, and I don't want to see anything bad happen to this extraordinary company!!!! X_X