Square-Enix CEO Yoichi Wada steps down

[Icemage]

http://www.hd.square-enix.com/eng/ne...30326_02en.pdf

Current Square-Enix president Yoichi Wada steps down as president of Square-Enix as of late June 2013, replaced by CFO Yosuke Matsuda.

[cidbahamut]

Re: Square-Enix CEO Yoichi Wada steps down

So what does this mean exactly?

[Icemage]

Re: Square-Enix CEO Yoichi Wada steps down

So what does this mean exactly?

I didn't want to comment on the actual news post, but here's my 2 cents.

First, it looks like Square-Enix took some pretty horrible losses this year (surprising no one, considering how much of a money pit FFXIV has turned out to be). That's the primary reason Wada is stepping down, because the shareholders probably won't let him stay even if he wants to.

EDIT: Apparently S-E is projecting to lose about $130M instead of an original forecast of a $35M profit. That would be a good reason for him to step down. Investors don't like ugly surprises like that.

In terms of what happens with Square-Enix's various properties, it's the CFO who will be taking over. I don't think anyone outside of Square-Enix even knows who this guy is, but he's an accountant, so in my mind that's probably not a good sign, but I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. Considering the vast number of WTF decisions Wada has made over the past several years (FF13 debacle, FFXIV debacle)... really the only bright spots for Square-Enix were handhelds and Eidos purchase... there's tons of room for improvement.

I don't think we'll see any immediate fallout from this management change until the next generation of games arrives (later this year, and Square-Enix probably won't have anything new ready for PS4/next Xbox until 2014 at the earliest in any case). What we might see is a shift in their publishing and/or developers, but if the new guy axes any of the Eidos teams he deserves to be burnt at the stake.


Icemage

[Firewind]

Re: Square-Enix CEO Yoichi Wada steps down

A shift in publishing could be a pretty decent thing if finances are what they are concerned about. Square Enix must spend a fortune on TV advertising in the EU and I see an advert for at least one of their games on TV a night. It's even more noticeable with Tomb Raider given that pretty much everyone in the UK that had a PS1 or PC has played a Tomb Raider game, and the game is advertised literally everywhere here.

Same thing happened with FFXII, XIII, XIV and XIII-2. While a lot of Japanese publishers are pretty incompetent when it comes to marketing in the EU (Nintendo and Atlus spring to mind), Square Enix has been almost suicidally aggressive so it would not surprise me at all if advertising was part of a big chunk of their losses.

[Pwnagraphic]

Re: Square-Enix CEO Yoichi Wada steps down

A lot of people are arguing against the fact that it was the flop of FFXIV, but it had to be a major part of it and I think I remember hearing Wada was the one who wanted to release 1.0 so soon which eventually lead up to the company having to sink so much money into restructuring the team just to reboot the game and try to make back what they lost.. If it was true about his actions, this was probably something that was coming regardless if 2.0 ended up being a huge success.

There's also going to be major restructuring and even Yoshida mentioned earlier in an interview that SE needs to change so that right there, to me, is a sign that they knew about this for a while. Which shouldn't be surprising anyway.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: Square-Enix CEO Yoichi Wada steps down

What we might see is a shift in their publishing and/or developers, but if the new guy axes any of the Eidos teams he deserves to be burnt at the stake.

Doubt that will happen, given Eidos has been performing well on the whole. Their projects have been profitable in addition to having a long tail - especially Deus Ex on Steam and no doubt Wii U owners will pick up DXHR because their either fans already or need a good game. I don't know how Hitman Absolution performed, but it was being pushed on sale nearly out of the gate so that had to have helped a bit, not to mention its HD re-releases. The rest of the major releases from Eidos have turned a profit.

Honestly, SE should put Final Fantasy on indefinite hiatus and take so time to build up new IPs and some other older ones that have fallen into disuse. Maybe Chrono Trigger, Parasite Eve, SaGa and the like.

Also take notes on what Nintendo, Level 5 and Atlus are doing because they're totally showing up SE on quality, gameplay, characters and story now where RPGs are concerned. Seriously - everything we used to love about SE seems to be associated with those guys now.

EDIT: I know investors are fingering the blame toward Eidos, but that's because investors never blame themselves for expecting games like Tomb Raider and Sleeping Dogs to sell like Call of Duty. Sleeping Dogs sold 1.75 million copies, Hitman sold 3.6 mil since its launch and Tomb Raider is hovering around 3.3 million worldwide two weeks after launch.

If this is what SE considers a failure - they are deflecting blame. These a project that are turning a profit. The western studios are carrying their own weight and they just don't want to admit it.

[Pwnagraphic]

Re: Square-Enix CEO Yoichi Wada steps down

I just don't understand.. •_•)
( •_•)>⌐■-■
(⌐■_■)

Wadahapppened..

[Yellow Mage]

Re: Square-Enix CEO Yoichi Wada steps down

That was terrible but it made me grin anyway.

[Malacite]

Re: Square-Enix CEO Yoichi Wada steps down

Well, this is interesting...

Maybe they'll finally get their shit together? I dunno, Wada certainly had a few screw ups, and maybe this is just me but this feels like it could be a bit premature. As pointed out above, the Western studios are doing quite well, but with regards to FFXIV Wada has appeared in the last 2 or 3 Live Producer videos and exhibited quite a bit of enthusiasm (while also keeping tabs on Yoshida I'm sure). To me, there's really no reason for the big boss to appear in a dev video like that unless he wants to make a statement/show that he cares. So, from that perspective, I think SE might be jumping the gun here.

If you want to lay blame for FF13 and 13-2 being screw ups, how about going after Kitase? It was his project after all. Tanaka got the axe for screwing up 14 originally (and arguably holding back FFXI for years) and Komoto got demoted... yet Kitase continues to get a free pass? WTF?


I also don't think FF needs to go on Hiatus, just someone needs to go around kicking some asses. It wouldn't hurt them to revisit some older IPs either though, and maybe invest in new ones. It's been ages since we've had a *good* Mana game, in addition to the series BBQ pointed out (I would LOVE a new SaGa omg...). I just hope this doesn't come back to bite them in the ass creatively...

Case in point, Activision - Kotick has done an astounding job running that company, from a business perspective. But creatively he's sold out their soul.

- - - Updated - - -

Hmm, so it's not set in stone yet - http://www.joystiq.com/2013/03/26/square-enix-president-wada-to-step-down-106m-restructuring-l/

According to Square Enix's announcement, the change is "subject to a resolution" at the company's annual shareholders meeting in June, and a board of directors meeting held afterwards.

[cidbahamut]

Re: Square-Enix CEO Yoichi Wada steps down

Well, this is interesting...

Maybe they'll finally get their shit together?

Why, because one guy left the company? Not likely.

Fucking things up this bad is a team effort.

[Malacite]

Re: Square-Enix CEO Yoichi Wada steps down

Yes & no;

Yes, it is a failure as a team, but sometimes all it takes is one energized leader to whip everyone into shape, e.g. Yoshida san

[Icemage]

Re: Square-Enix CEO Yoichi Wada steps down

maybe this is just me but this feels like it could be a bit premature.

Well, let's talk about Wada's tenure.

He wasn't bad during generation 6. S-E developed FFX-2, FFXII, Romancing SaGa, and Kingdom Hearts II during that stretch. Not bad.

When the switch to HD happened, though, he fell apart and let the inmates run the asylum.

The only things he's done right since 2007 were purchasing Eidos, and letting the handheld teams do their thing (then again, this is exactly what got him in trouble with the mainline console and PC teams). The World Ends With You is arguably the best and most unique NDS game ever released, the Eidos teams ended up producing Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light, DX:HR, Tomb Raider, and Hitman: Absolution, and Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep is largely considered the best entry in the series despite being on the PSP.

Everything else though? Misfires galore.

FFXI was a train wreck when it first launched. It took years to iron out its problems from a social engineering standpoint, and a lot of that was just Wada either not caring or not knowing enough about the business to fix it, instead letting the JP development team just sit around and do a whole lot of nothing as the game shed increasingly frustrated players.

FFXIII got bogged down for years. You can blame whoever you like, but the blame goes all the way to the top because it's the manager's job to make sure the staff below are doing their jobs properly; when he's not, he's not doing his own job properly. It was so bad that they had enough extra assets to make two additional games (why else do you think Wada greenlit Lightning Returns?). It's a minor miracle that XIII-2 was at all playable, and it will be an even larger miracle if Lightning Returns ends up not completely sucking as well. He burnt a bunch of bridges with Sony in the process over FFXIII's exclusivity. It was taking so long and costing so much money that it made more sense to accept Microsoft's offer to break exclusivity than to just finish the game and move on.

And let's not forget the unmitigated disaster that was FFXIV. This was a game that no one asked for, took forever in development, was more or less FFXI through a mirror darkly, and quite frankly sucked at launch - even compared to launches of other MMOs, or even FFXI's. The fallout from FFXIV's launch is so bad that did some serious damage to the Final Fantasy brand - anyone who wasn't already ticked off at how boring FFXIII was certainly didn't get any more confidence after FFXIV launched.

Granted, Wada did attempt to make amends by trying to "fix" FFXIV with A Realm Reborn, but does anyone really think that's going to rescue the game?

I think the saddest thing that can be said about Square-Enix's internal development is that the best work they've done recently is Bravely Default: Flying Fairy, a game with a name so ridiculous that you can't even take it seriously.


Icemage

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: Square-Enix CEO Yoichi Wada steps down

I think the saddest thing that can be said about Square-Enix's internal development is that the best work they've done recently is Bravely Default: Flying Fairy, a game with a name so ridiculous that you can't even take it seriously

And no formal western announcement yet. In a year where 3DS is trucking along quite well with JRPGs now is not the time for them to let that game languish in obscurity - rename it and bring it west. Get every hand on deck for FFX and FFX-2 HD.

Its worth pointing out DQ met its greatest and lowest success in retail on Wada's watch as well. DQIX was a high and while DQX is actually where it took FFXI two years toget, its not setting the world on fire. DQX is hardly a full failure, but making it an MMO probably wasn't the best idea. Its not really even the fault of the platform - just the idea of making it an MMO.

Perhaps in time it will become an asset like FFXI eventually did, but I hope its an object lesson in putting online connectivity where it doesn't belong.

[Malacite]

Re: Square-Enix CEO Yoichi Wada steps down

I still think XIV has a good chance of recovering. I can't go into specifics obviously because of the NDA, but I will say Yoshida hasn't been busting his ass off for nothing. I think it's a matter of Wada realizing too late just how badly he screwed up. He's done a decent job recently in terms of repairing the damage, but again, the damage has been done. Tanaka should have been sacked from XI after ToAU quite frankly - Letting WotG drag on for 3 years? Inexcusable. Pissing off Sony the way they did with FFXIII, on top of letting Kitase run wild with company resources and not reprimanding him at all? Equally as bad. Worse, even, since he's still at it but then like you said, they're basically using up the resources they'd sunk in.

Nevermind the whole debacle at the PS4 event, or the fact that we still haven't heard shit all about Versus 13.


EDIT: I wouldn't go so far as to say 14 wasn't wanted or asked for; it built up a LOT of hype and positive attention when it was first showcased. Sure, they could have done an HD version of XI instead, but I think XIV generated enough genuine interest to merit its creation. The problem however, was the game got rushed and once again, Tanaka had free reign when everyone who's played XI knew full well the man was a bull-headed jackass who plays by his own rules and ignores criticism. Part of why I want to see 14 succeed isn't just because I like the game, but also to see Yoshida get respect he deserves. We need more guys like him at SE, and less like Tanaka & Kitase.

[Pwnagraphic]

Re: Square-Enix CEO Yoichi Wada steps down

Rember to keep in account that not even the Eidos part of the company was enough so there's obviously more that needs to change inside the company that has nothing to do with Final Fantasy. What that is, I do not know.