In a surprising move, Square Enix announced last night that the company’s president, Yosuke Matsuda, will be stepping down later this year. He has held this role for nearly a decade.
The proposed changes were sent to shareholders and investors, outlining Matsuda’s departure plan and his proposed replacement Takashi Kiryu. Gematsu is also reporting this to be accurate.
Kiryu joined the company in 2020 as general manager for the corporate planning division of the company. In his short time with the company, Kiryu has held many different roles but seems poised to take on even more after Matsuda steps down. Currently, this plan is only in the proposal stages and has to be approved by the shareholders before the changes can be enacted. The Annual Shareholder Meetings are held in May and June, and the decision will be voted on then.
The news comes after a rocky few years for Square Enix. The company’s proposed plan was to utilize more blockchain technology. However, introducing NFTs in its games alienated a large portion of its audience. As a result, a slew of live service games have been canceled and had support terminated despite promises that they would continue to support the games for several years.
On top of that, the creator of Sonic, Yuji Naka, was revealed to be a part of insider trading at the company along with two other employees. This occurred before Final Fantasy VII: The First Soldier and Dragon Quest Tact were released. Naka and the other employees bought stock in the games to profit upon their releases.
Matsuda took over his role from Yoichi Wada in 2013. He oversaw company restructuring, several acquisitions of smaller studios, and the sale of multiple Western studios and IPs in 2022. Studios Crystal Dynamics, Eidos Montreal, and the now-closed Square Enix Montreal were sold to Embracer Group.
