Square Enix to oust Yosuke Matsuda as President, Takashi Kiryu to replace him
A leadership change at Square Enix is underway as a new notification sent out by the company details. Yosuke Matsuda, President and Representative Director of Square Enix, will be replaced by the current Director Takashi Kiryu. Shareholders will still need to approve this change at the 43rd annual shareholder meeting, which is planned to be held in June 2023.
Square Enix launched a few high-profile duds under Yosuke Matsuda’s leadership recently, such as Marvel’s The Avengers, Babylon’s Fall, and Forspoken, and sold a majority of its overseas assets and IPs to Embracer Group to finance a controversial pivot to blockchain technology and NFTs.
Square Enix's release catalog was a real mixed bag in the last couple of years.
Square Enix
Yosuke Matsuda repeatedly emphasized his will to invest heavily into those fields, most prominently in Square Enix’s last two New Years letters, which earned him massive criticism from the gaming community. Under his leadership, Square Enix also announced that it would merge subsidiary Luminous Productions back into the main company a few days ago.
Whether Yosuke Matsuda’s ousting is a reaction to recent failed game releases or indicates a different direction regarding the pivot to blockchain technology and NFTs is not known at this time.
His replacement, Takashi Kiryu, has been with the company since 2020. Before that, he was a General Manager and Director at Dentsu, where he oversaw the Strategic Investment Department of the Dentsu Innovation Initiative, which dealt with topics like the creator economy and the metaverse – not exactly fields of interest the gaming community will point towards as a good sign for a change in the right direction.
At least Square Enix has Final Fantasy 16 to look forward to this year, which looks like it will be a big hit and worthy successor to the iconic franchise according to our Final Fantasy 16 preview.
