Ten years after taking on the challenge of leading one of the world’s premiere video game companies, Yosuke Matsuda will be stepping down as the CEO of Square Enix later this year. Matsuda will be replaced by a relative beginner in June, after it’s approved by the shareholders.
The company confirmed Matsuda’s departure to open the weekend, explaining the rationale behind the move by saying:
Under the rapid change of 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 on the creativity of the Company’s group in order to deliver even greater entertainment to its customers around the world.
Square Enix isn’t in the best place financially and in the eyes of the public. Final Fantasy 16 remains one of the most hyped current-gen games, while fans are looking forward to Final Fantasy VII Rebirth to come in Winter 2023
Unfortunately, we’ve seen the once illustrious studio come out with more misses to make up for the occasional hits in the past few years. This is reflected in the dwindling stock price of the company, resulting in last year’s firesale of its Western subsidiaries to Embracer Group.
At this point, Square Enix is as synonymous with its iconic franchises like Final Fantasy as commercial duds like Forspoken, BALAN Wonderworld, and Babylon’s Fall.
All the while, outgoing CEO Matsuda expressed his support for crypto gaming every chance he could. He claimed NFTs and blockchain-based digital assets are at the forefront of the gaming industry, even after the likes of Blizzard Entertainment, Microsoft, and Valve have explicitly avoided the new technology.
The irony of the grand vision of the soon-to-be-former CEO of Square Enix wasn’t lost on fans. Keep in mind that anti-eco-terrorism is literally the main point of one of the company’s biggest games, Final Fantasy VII.
The good news is Matsuda’s replacement is the complete opposite. Kiryu’s background and the announcement by Square all suggest that it understands that it needs a fresh perspective if it wants to survive an industry that’s become synonymous with billion-dollar acquisitions. Kiryu, who is just 48 years old, didn’t join Square Enix until 2020. Before this, Kiryu wasn’t a known commodity in the gaming industry, unlike Matusada who had worked in various executive roles within Square Enix before succeeding Yoichi Wada in 2013.
Fingers crossed, incoming Square Enix president, Kiryu, is up to appear as a boss battle in a future Square Enix game, much like what happened with Matsuda in Final Fantasy XV and NieR: Automata.
