Matsuda stepping down as Sqenix President and CEO

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Press Release

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 the creativity of the company’s group in order to deliver even greater entertainment to its customers around the world

---

Press Release

I wonder if this means they are changing course from the NFT message at the beginning of this year or will Takashi Kiryu stay in line with that.

well, we need to wait and see for what road the new boss will travel, if it's the crappy one full of NFT and pay to win shit or the nice one that respects our money, our relationship with the company and their products and how this will impact FFXIV productions and services. But, such situations are always suspicious... '-'

Hopefully the new CEO sees the bad ideas pushed by Matsuda and sees the bad games released under him and does something to change course.

The new guy, Kiryu, worked at an advertising and public relations company and has only been in Square Enix since 2020. Kind of a weird choice, I expected Kitase or Miyake. I wonder if this will be a change for the better or if it's gonna be more of the same...

Getting rid of matsuda isnt bad. Unfortunately this new guy always has the option to be worse. CEOs usually just fail up and away to other companies where they will again cause more harm. Truly the masterclass of snake oil salesmen.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Midareyukki

The new guy, Kiryu, worked at an advertising and public relations company and has only been in Square Enix since 2020. Kind of a weird choice, I expected Kitase or Miyake. I wonder if this will be a change for the better or if it's gonna be more of the same...

---

That worries me tbh. I wonder if it's because it's he's amazing at his job or if because his ideals fall more in line with his predecessor/NFTs than others.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Midareyukki

The new guy, Kiryu, worked at an advertising and public relations company and has only been in Square Enix since 2020. Kind of a weird choice, I expected Kitase or Miyake. I wonder if this will be a change for the better or if it's gonna be more of the same...

---

In most large japanese game companies it's not a developer or game director who ends up being a CEO. This is why Nintendo didn't pick Miyamoto or Takahashi to be the CEO after Iwata. It'd be a waste of their skillset that is more valuable if they can supervise or be directly involved with teams.

Honestly this is kind of welcome. I don’t have a strong opinion of him but SE sure feels like they run skeleton crews on everything, despite some games deserving a lot more love. (This one). Maybe it’ll change for the better.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Thaciscokidd

Press Release

I wonder if this means they are changing course from the NFT message at the beginning of this year or will Takashi Kiryu stay in line with that.

---

Unlikely something will change.

They double downed on their NFT course and the other projects they have, making any bigger decisions would only make their investors upset after their show of dedication at the start of this year, not mention the potential loss of their face (little of what remains of it, at least).
We can hope he rearranges a few things here and there to have SE not witness another title like Babylon's Fall, and by lesser extent Forspoken, if anything.

I doubt this is gonna change much with their direction of NFTs. Its too much to hope for but Ill be happy to he proven wrong

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by ReynTime

In most large japanese game companies it's not a developer or game director who ends up being a CEO. This is why Nintendo didn't pick Miyamoto or Takahashi to be the CEO after Iwata. It'd be a waste of their skillset that is more valuable if they can supervise or be directly involved with teams.

---

Maybe. I don't think Kitase's doing anything lately xD

But either way. I'm not saying that they should go for the other devs. I didn't mention Saito and Yoshida for a reason. I know very, very well that just because you're good at being a dev, it doesn't mean you can run a company, even if you're on the board. That was never my intention.

What concerned me is his experience with the company. The others don't have as much experience in the corporate side of things, but they know the company the longest. Meanwhile from what I see, Kiryu's experience has been the complete opposite: lots of corporate-side experience but few years with the company.

I just don't want to have the same as early last decade where Square Enix had almost zero idea how to approach their series and made really dumb questionable choices. But it's too early to tell, and it's not fair on Kiryu to judge him by his cover. Just expressing concern about how well he knows the company he's in and how much he knows about the videogame industry. Especially when more and more we've seen the industry care far too much about making a quick buck than its employees or having a product worth buying.

Or you know... the NFT plot.

Edit: nevermind, Kitase stopped being "Special Thanks" on the credits and is the Producer of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth xD

The optimist in me (very tiny) say maybe it will be good, the realist say more of the same (biggest part) and the pessimist says it'll be worse (small). As another poster said though it's just far to early to make any judgments.

I honestly find it sad and pathetic how twitter is taking this news as if this is actually going to change the company for the better.

Hopefully no more SE PlayStation exclusives with the new CEO and his business strategy.

I've a sneaking suspicion this is going to be one of those monkey's paw things. A lot of people very vocally wished for Matsuda to step down, and we know what happens when you make a wish on a monkey's paw.

A Bona fide, "You think(any change will)do, but you (realize, it) don't."
[all the time at the very least]

<Just like some mergers won't change anything-looks at some specific company-, Whilst others just build surface level worry.>

[as others said, to early to tell or judge.., even if they were one in "tune" with what the "Market" or consumer wants.., that might not be for the best depending on the situation.]

Best of luck to the New Ceo.., Hope they at minimum do well, more than the old one.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Midareyukki

Maybe. I don't think Kitase's doing anything lately xD

But either way. I'm not saying that they should go for the other devs. I didn't mention Saito and Yoshida for a reason. I know very, very well that just because you're good at being a dev, it doesn't mean you can run a company, even if you're on the board. That was never my intention.

What concerned me is his experience with the company. The others don't have as much experience in the corporate side of things, but they know the company the longest. Meanwhile from what I see, Kiryu's experience has been the complete opposite: lots of corporate-side experience but few years with the company.

I just don't want to have the same as early last decade where Square Enix had almost zero idea how to approach their series and made really dumb questionable choices. But it's too early to tell, and it's not fair on Kiryu to judge him by his cover. Just expressing concern about how well he knows the company he's in and how much he knows about the videogame industry. Especially when more and more we've seen the industry care far too much about making a quick buck than its employees or having a product worth buying.

Or you know... the NFT plot.

Edit: nevermind, Kitase stopped being "Special Thanks" on the credits and is the Producer of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth xD

---

It could have something to do with his experience at Dentsu, which is one of the biggest companies in Japan.

So if SE keeps making bad decisions and eventually crumbles this could possibly mean that FFXIV could be over soon. Unless someone buys the IP from SE before they fail

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by LianaThorne

I wonder if it's because it's he's amazing at his job or if because his ideals fall more in line with his predecessor/NFTs than others.

---

I wanna hope that more than one executive in SE realized that NFTs aren't really that interesting to people (like Ubisoft eventually did), so they're specifically changing leadership to not deal with that anymore. If they wanted to stick with the same, Matsuda was doing just fine. So I wanna remain hopeful, but we'll just have to wait and see.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Kranel_San

Hopefully no more SE PlayStation exclusives with the new CEO and his business strategy.

---

sonys gotta get people to buy playstations somehow, so long as sony gives square a nice fat sack of cash they will continue to do exclusives its just the way the industry is, same reason why games keep becoming epic exclusives before coming to steam

Glad Matsuda is finally gone, but I'll wait and see what this new CEO does.

Indeed square have failed in many games with him: Marvel avengers, GUA of gallaxy (didnt sold well cause marvel avengers flop) flopspoken, crisis core (didnt sold well despite awesome game), NFT (nobody wants that).
Im really not surpised! :rolleyes:

I hope the new CEO puts more money into FFXI so we get more updates faster.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Velvet_Lunarfang

So if SE keeps making bad decisions and eventually crumbles this could possibly mean that FFXIV could be over soon. Unless someone buys the IP from SE before they fail

---

I have a feeling Sony would purchase SE if it came to that.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by hynaku

I hope the new CEO puts more money into FFXI so we get more updates faster.

---

Unironically I am 100% agreeing with FF11 needing more money. Would be nice to see some big QOL updates like removing playonline completely and having a FF11 launcher and friendslists that are integrated in game instead of through playonline.

Well we can just hope that NOW Yoshi-P's request for additional funding for FFXIV will be approved. I heard he asked before and was rejected hopefully now he can get better funding, grow his team where he sees it needs it and develop more for the game. Course this also could be worse but i can suck on some hopium for now.

"I would say it's time for the SE CEO to step down. Heck, Sakaguchi was canned for less, lmao."
*posted on the 23rd of last month*
*thread gets locked by mod*
*this happens*
O-Oh man. I'm sorry Matsuda. I was only fun posting! I didn't mean nothin' by it! ...What if this means they really do read the forums?!

The corporate side of Square hasn't been good within the last 20 years. I expect the devil we don't know to be the same or worse.

I'm concerned this new President will try to take over FFXIV. I know Matsuda and Yoshi had an agreement that Yoshi had full creative control / direction of the game. The last time this happened at Square after the failure of Spirits within, the President basically threw caution to the wind and dived head first into the sequel territory to try and milk the franchises as much as possible to recoup money. I truly hope this President doesn't kneejerk try to take over xiv to milk it to make up for the awful decisions Matsuda made with selling some of their biggest franchises for only 300mil and the whole blockchain thing.

I'm also very worried for FF16. We all knew forspoken was going to fail, it looked awful. FF16 actually looks great and a return to form. I'm really worried about this. I hope Yoshi puts out a statement.

This also worries me for the fanfest. I was fortunate enough to be chosen, and after being a fan of final fantasy basically my whole life (I'm in my 30s now...) I was so happy to get to celebrate FFXIV with the dev team. I hope they don't cut funding and cancel. T.T

Hopefully a change in direction from NFTs. Pretty sure META failing which is designed around selling NFTs should be a clear sign, especially when you see a company losing billions of dollars.

So for those hoping the NFT route was going to be abandoned, I think you all may be disappointed.

https://novacrystallis.com/2023/03/t...x-ceo-in-june/

"...but it will also be important to approach new content and technology with flexibility and without fear of change when it comes to building new potential users. This also applies to their Web 3.0 strategy, in which Kiryu plans to continue to follow this path as he sees it as a potential to lead to the company’s next opportunity for growth."

The Web 3.0 strategy involves NFTs. I don't know if this is 100% accurate with what he was saying, but check out the article, it's a good read.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Fellgon

Indeed square have failed in many games with him: Marvel avengers, GUA of gallaxy (didnt sold well cause marvel avengers flop) flopspoken, crisis core (didnt sold well despite awesome game), NFT (nobody wants that).
Im really not surpised! :rolleyes:

---

Not to mention FF13, FF14 1.0, FF15 and Kingdom Hearts 3.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Soge01

Not to mention FF13, FF15 and Kingdom Hearts 3.

---

>.> i liked all of those games

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Soge01

Not to mention FF13, FF14 1.0, FF15 and Kingdom Hearts 3.

---

13 and 14's 1.0 were while Wada was president and 1.0 was the reason Wada stepped down...(or one of the higher reason,)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Meowdyj

About time. These japanese people and their ridiculous MMO culture handling should step down. That's all going to say about it.

---

Erm kinda racist but ok

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Meowdyj

How? I'm sure more and done are with this ridiculous handling of japanese handling of this game. Every single time something has to change is because the JP forums complains and even tho the English community is the largest they can't speak English on streams or their musical channel. Only to speak out about is is racist, ok .

---

You are actually being serious right now. Holy crap...

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Meowdyj

How? I'm sure more and done are with this ridiculous handling of japanese handling of this game. Every single time something has to change is because the JP forums complains and even tho the English community is the largest they can't speak English on streams or their musical channel. Only to speak out about is is racist, ok .

---

guessing you think that a 'murican should be in charge?

last I checked, North America is not the center of the universe. never been to the Japanese forums, so I dont know if its the same but, english forums generally encompass a very very very small percentage of the player base. typically companies will listen more to their home crowd because thats where they live. American companies do it as well.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Atelier-Bagur

You are actually being serious right now. Holy crap...

---

Truth is hard I know.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Atelier-Bagur

You are actually being serious right now. Holy crap...

---

Bro, you need an actual argument outside of "I can't even!". lmao

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Meowdyj

How? I'm sure more and done are with this ridiculous handling of japanese handling of this game. Every single time something has to change is because the JP forums complains and even tho the English community is the largest they can't speak English on streams or their musical channel. Only to speak out about is is racist, ok .

---

Are you using Google Translate? Just curious.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Poporito_Popoto

Are you using Google Translate? Just curious.

---

It doesn't look like they do, but them complaining that the Japanese developers don't speak English in LLs and such in broken English is irony...