Yosuke Matsuda, Square Enix’s president and representative director, is standing down after ten years in the role.
According to the formal statement, he will be replaced by Takahashi Kiryu, a business director who joined Square in 2020 as part of an organizational restructuring. At the 43rd Annual Shareholders Meeting in June, the suggested change will be decided on. The following is Square Enix’s explanation for the change:
Under the rapidly changing business environment surrounding the entertainment industry, the proposed change is intended to reshape the management team with the goal of adopting ever evolving technological innovations and maximizing the Company’s group’s creativity in order to deliver even greater entertainment to its customers worldwide.
Matsuda took over as president in 2013, replacing Yoichi Wada as part of a major reorganization. His tenure at the summit could be described as a rollercoaster ride. He advocated for innovation in Square’s main series, Final Fantasy, and expressed a desire to remake and re-release famous titles from Square’s back library, such as Final Fantasy VII. Under his leadership, the MMO Final Fantasy XIV became a worldwide sensation, though the business as a whole has failed to find huge success outside of the series. High-profile Square Enix-published games like Marvel’s Avengers and Babylon’s Fall have had disappointing releases in recent years, with the former stopping production this year and the latter shutting down this week.
Matsuda was also at the forefront of Square’s tumultuous relationships with its North American third-party publishers, namely Crystal Dynamics and Eidos Montreal, whose titles such as the Tomb Raider reboot trilogy, Deus Ex, and Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy were frequently regarded as commercial disappointments. This came to a climax last May, when Square Enix sold these companies and their intellectual property to Embracer Group.
Matsuda has recently been an outspoken supporter of NFTs and blockchain gaming. In January, he released a letter outlining forthcoming business initiatives, including the creation of games that use blockchain technology.
