Yoichi Wada steps down as Square Enix CEO
Wada leaves after fiscal year revision, will be replaced by Yosuke Matsuda
Yoichi Wada will step down as CEO and president of Square Enix following a drastic revision of the company's fiscal year forecast.
In a note passed to investors, Square Enix said it "expects" Wada to leave the position of CEO, which he has held since Square Co. and the Enix Corporation merged in 2003.
Wada will be replaced by current representative director Yosuke Matsuda. The decision is subject to a resolution at its general meeting of shareholders in June this year, and a resolution by its board of directors in a meeting directly afterwards.
Today, Square Enix revised its fiscal forecast down by ¥16.5 billion ($175m/£115m) following the poor performance of major console titles in Europe and North America since its last forecast in October 2012.
Wada is the second major CEO casualty of recent times, following John Riccitiello's decision to step down at Electronic Arts last week. Riccitiello's departure was also linked to the company's failure to meet its financial targets.
Wada joined Square Co. in April 2000. His ascent was rapid: he was appointed chief financial officer in June of that year, chief operating officer in September, and finally CEO in December. Wada has also held the position of chairman of the Computer Entertainment Supplier's Association - which organises the Tokyo Game Show - since 2006.
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Consoles have been on the way out since 2008. Vita and Wii-U are just the latest symptoms of this demise.
Plenty of senior managers have failed to adapt their companies to the changes in the market.
So it is not much of a surprise when shareholders institute new management.
There are more gamers than ever before and enough room for consoles, PC, mobile and facebook. No platform is the ultimate solution because each platform has its strength and weakness. Mobile is great for on the go games that you can enjoy in small doses and pause any time. Console and PC is great for big immersive story driven games and competitive online gaming.
Consoles are FAR from dying. The Vita is a mobile platform, not a console, so I think you slipped up there... and the Wii-U, to be fair, that's a very different sort of console to the Xbox and Playstation. Gamers are proving that their interest in consoles is far from over by spending 10s of billions each year on them. The mobile market has done well over the last 5 years, yes, but it's not stolen much, if anything, from console gaming and I'm not sure that it ever will.
I know you need mobile to do well for your own business, Kwalee, to succeed - but you're not going to make that happen any faster by constant console bashing on the forums.
Shareholders are the worst thing to happen to a creative medium like video games. The main casualty, from a gamer's perspective, is that a lot of legendary titles are going to be further abused as the market chases the freemium golden ring. If you hated All The Bravest, you haven't seen anything yet.
According to information released today, Tomb Raider is expected to sell 3.4 million units, excluding downloads, by March 31, and it still didn't meet its targets. I've seen Tomb Raider generously discounted over the last week or so, but those internal expectations seem dauntingly high.
I do not work for Kwalee.
Console games at $60 and delivered using plastic and cardboard are just plain silly. The world has moved on. They are dinosaurs. This news story is further proof of that.
If all you care about is a shareholder perspective - and Bruce, you don't seem to give a crap about games, this is just a money-making venture to you - then that's one thing.
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On Matthew's update, the fact that Tomb Raider could sell 3.4m units and still fall short is *terrifying*. Where are we as an industry!?
Also, re: Kwalee... really? Why on earth would you leave Kwalee, by all accounts they seem to be doing very well..?
That said, I disagree with you Bruce on your point about consoles dying. Console installed base is at an all time high and record sales for IP have been experienced by many companies. I just wish people would realise very simply mathematical facts like that. The success of other platforms may be a factor or an interesting discussion moving into the future of gaming, but I wish such statements weren't made without a basic consideration for the situation on the ground.
Square-Enix have/have had serious structural, technological and resource issues. They have said as much themselves. Mobile, cloud, browser etc is definitely part of their future growth, but coming back to consoles, they're not making a good enough success of their own IP and utilising their incredible talent and resource in the right way at the moment.
They need their new CEO to go back to basics for one, with their focus on stunning, high quality games. Secondly, they need to continue with their plans to create strong technology bases for multi-platform development. Which have been up and down to say the least.
It's a combination of budgets climbing into the stratosphere, gamers demanding something new and exciting every time they boot up, and investors who want every game released to hit a seven run home run. The budgets are so large that every game that gets released is a company betting that the game will sell at least 5m copies, which is an astronomical number to set as your baseline. Gamers are even complaining about the latest God of War, despite the fact that if they changed that game up much, gamers would also complain; damned if you do, damned if you don't. And I've already made my distaste for investors palpably clear in the past.
I know many of you will know my views from the vested position of supporting the Digital Out-of-Home Entertainment (DOE) approach - but also as an adviser and observer of the trends in the consumer game scene, it is more than obvious from the demise of development studios, poor performance of sales, abandonment of investor support, and a lack of management direction - that the console game scene is at a transitional point - much more than just the end of a 'cycle'!
I would like to advice avoidance of the "shoot the messenger" approach to discussion - all views are valid, if only to illustrate an individuals state of mind. I would however not have my views taken to the "chicken little" end of the world observation. The consumer games industry is vibrant and innovative, this the only industry that could popularize so much of the innovation seen with Gen-7 systems (VR, Gesture Tech, Motion Capture, Cloud Gaming, etc.,) Though the independent hardware approach dose seem the industries future that will inevitably decimate the power-system of the AAA publishers.
Large top side, "do nothing suit" heavy companies are going to have a real struggle going forward in this new world economy. It is the lean, agile, and quick to adapt companies that have the best chance to capitalize on this new fragmented sometimes hard to reach world of consumer gamers IMHO.
@Christopher: "gamers demanding something new and exciting every time they boot up"
I disagree. If this was true CoD and Assassin's Creed would not sell so well and have a new edition every single year. This part is because in the past when somebody saw a huge game and it was the only one for 2 months they bought it. Now, a new game - even a great one - has a half-dozen other great new releases in a month to contend with that are known quantities so the new stuff often gets overlooked - in my opinion.
Edited 2 times. Last edit by Jason Sartor on 26th March 2013 5:47pm
Square Enix publishes great games this days now thy sould make great games...The last 4 Final Fantasy games wher bad and thats ther core franchise..
Edited 2 times. Last edit by Stephan Schwabe on 27th March 2013 10:38am
And on another note, if 3.4M copies sold (not counting digital!) is "weak" since March 5th for Tomb Raider, I really wonder what were the predictions for these guys, 5? 7? Companies need to stop thinking every title has to be a 'CoD like' seller.
That said. Saying console gaming is doom because one big company has a problem regardless of where its profit really came from is totally nonsense.
SQEN has very serious management issues. People who believe that their games need to be sold more than 5 millions in order to be considered successful obviously have very big problem in their brain.
Edited 1 times. Last edit by Siyuan Lin on 27th March 2013 10:20am