Soon after a projected loss of 13 billion yen (or $138 million USD) was announced, Square Enix revealed that Yoichi Wada would be stepping down as president of the company. Director and CFO Yosuke Matsuda will be taking his place. In an investors briefing (translated by Siliconera), Matsuda promised to make necessary changes.
“After having succeeded the important role as the president, I plan on reviewing all Square Enix duties, business and assets on a zero-based budgeting standpoint. Due to the radical change of environment, I’d like to fundamentally review what works and what doesn’t work for our company, then cast all of our resources towards extending what makes us successful and thoroughly squeezing out what doesn’t.”
More changes are afoot as the current CEO of Square Enix Europe, Phil Rogers, will be promoted to director of Square Enix Holdings.
It is currently unclear what position Wada will hold after his resignation goes into effect this June, but he states that he will continue to be a part of Square Enix in some way.
“As an employee, I believe it is my duty to help the company and give proper results from it. I will be retiring from the line of management, but I plan to work on site as a way to pay my debt to the company.”
Earlier last week, Square Enix had expressed disappointment in the sales of titles like Tomb Raider, Sleeping Dogs, and Hitman Absolution. However, if the 3.4 million sales of Tomb Raider and 3.6 million sales of Hitman Absolution were disappointing, a change in leadership may be exactly what they need right now.
