Matsuda stepping down as Sqenix President and CEO

[Thaciscokidd]

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.

[Wanzzo]

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... '-'

[Amenara]

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.

[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...

[Saraide]

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.

[LianaThorne]

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.

[ReynTime]

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.

[Ath192]

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.

[Arrius]

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.

[Atelier-Bagur]

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