Square Enix is in the middle of a leadership reorganization, resulting in long-time President Yosuke Matsuda stepping down from his position. Unfortunately, this may just be the restart of a massive corporate restructuring if we believe the rumors.
A report shared in the Gaming Leak and Rumors subreddit say that Square Enix is having a corporate crisis. User Taichi_Aoki said that sources within the company revealed that internal turmoil amidst poor sales of Forspoken, and the franchise's most recent AAA titles, might result in the delays of Kingdom Hearts 4 and FF7 Rebirth.
"The recent flops are leading Square Enix to sell off internal studios (including For Spoken) and more staff cuts in the Tokyo, China, London and Los Angeles offices," Taichi_Aoki shared. "The entire management and project staff is changing drastically due to some choices made in recent years."
The user adds, "As for the games in development, they are proceeding according to plan, although there will certainly be some upheavals with release dates. The internal resource lets me know that the company now wants to be careful with its flagship IPs because they are in a very delicate situation with investors."
According to the rumor, Square Enix will hold off on releasing trailers for Kingdom Hearts 4 and Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, at least until Final Fantasy XVI is released. The upcoming action RPG game is set to be launched on June 22.
Sources also shared that Square Enix allocated a huge marketing fund for Final Fantasy XVI as the company believes "it will be the game that will be able to gain the trust of investors on future projects." The post adds that Square Enix may give us a bit more info about Kingdom Hearts 4 at the Tokyo Game Show 2023, which is scheduled for September 21 to 24, along with its release window.
The rumor suggests that Final Fantasy VII Rebirth will be showcased at E3. However, Square Enix is still waiting for a new directive from the President of the company. Final Fantasy VII Rebirth has originally been slated for Winter 2023, but it may change due to the leadership change within Square Enix.
This is just a rumor at this point as Square Enix has not yet announced any changes to its release schedule for Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. We will know in a few months if this report holds true.
