Square Enix: President and blockchain fan Yosuke Matsuda has to go
With a very soberly worded statement, those responsible at Square Enix announced on March 3, 2023 that President Yosuke Matsuda had to vacate his position for a successor who should be better suited to leading the company into a successful future.
Through his annual New Year’s letters, Square Enix President Yosuke Matsuda has made a name for himself as an avid fan of the Blockchain and NFT division made. Already In early 2022, Matsuda explained that he finds these topics, but also the metaverse, extremely exciting and that the company intends to invest more in these areas in the future. At the beginning of 2023, the President then confirmed the chosen pathalthough the blockchain hype had to take a heavy hit in 2022.
Yosuke Matsuda has to go
For ten years, Yosuke Matsuda played a key role in shaping the fortunes of Square Enix as President and CEO. He’ll have to vacate his place soon. On March 3, 2023, those responsible at Square Enix had in a very soberly worded message initiated the removal of Matsuda as president and representative director of the company. The reasoning:
“Given the rapidly changing business environment in the entertainment industry, the proposed change seeks to reshape the management team to embrace the ever-evolving technological innovations and maximize the group’s creativity to bring even more entertainment to customers around the world .“
In other words: Yosuke Matsuda is not the right man to lead Square Enix into a successful future in the current situation. As his successor, Takashi Kiryu will take over the helm. Kiryu has only been at Square Enix for a few years and before that was General Manager at the Dentsu Innovation Initiative. The group of companies is researching the possibilities of the Metaverse, among other things, so you should not assume that Square Enix is now making a 180 degree turn on this topic.
The change is to be officially approved and implemented at the annual general meeting of shareholders in May 2023 and at the subsequent meeting of the board of directors. Already in the last year at Square Enix various Actions taken to improve publisher capital efficiency and drive diversification of studio capital structure . This included, among other things, to part with Crystal Dynamics, Square Enix Montreal and Eidos Montreal (and by extension some of the most iconic brands in gaming history, namely Tomb Raider, Deus Ex and Thief).
Reference-www.buffed.de
