Yoichi Wada stepping down!

[Rostum]

Looks like Yoichi Wada is stepping down from Square Enix.

"Today, it was announced that Square Enix president Yoichi Wada is stepping down. He will no longer be serving as Square Enix's Representative Director. Yousuke Matsuda, who joined Square in 2001, will take over Wada's role in running the company.
The reason given for Wada's demotion was "a management reorganization". According to Japanese website 4Gamer (http://www.4gamer.net/games/999/G999905/20130326067/), no word on what's next for Wada. This comes as Square Enix is forecasting (http://www.hd.square-enix.com/130326.pdf) an "extraordinary loss" in its next financial statement."

Square Enix's Yoichi Wada Is Stepping Down (http://kotaku.com/square-enixs-yoichi-wada-is-stepping-down-458811790)

[The Man]

And nothing of value was lost.

[Loony BoB]

This makes me sad if only because he was always supportive of Yoshida and hilarious on the live letters.

EDIT: Still, I hope this means we get less spinoffs/remakes and more original stuff.

[Del Murder]

This may be the shot in the arm SE needs. I didn't like the direction the company has been going under Wada.

[Spooniest]

This reminds me of a story... (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Trek_II:_The_Wrath_of_Khan#Production)

Whoever gets the reins next is gonna be told "We are not made of money."

[Loony BoB]

This reminds me of a story... (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Trek_II:_The_Wrath_of_Khan#Production)

Whoever gets the reins next is gonna be told "We are not made of money."
Considering Matsuda is the former chief financial officer not to mention a director, I'd say he will be the one dictating how much money they are made of.

[ShinGundam]

This is not very good for FF14 revival, luminous and Eidos.

The fact that he didn't wait for ARR release says something, I guess Versus being co-developed by Sony might be true afterall.

[Ouch!]

This is the best thing that could have happened to the company. I haven't been a huge fan of the direction that the company has taken under Wada since the merge, and while I don't believe it's fair to name Wada as the source of the rot (it's never just one bad egg), his resignation is a major turning point for the company regardless. Whoever ends up filling the top seats in this management reform is going to have a lot of pressure to take the company in a different direction, if only to put separation between themselves and Wada's legacy.

[Roogle]

This is not very good for FF14 revival, luminous and Eidos.

The fact that he didn't wait for ARR release says something, I guess Versus being co-developed by Sony might be true afterall.

How many rumors about Final Fantasy Versus XIII are there? I don't think I have seen a title with this many rumors swirling around its development. You would think that they would release more information or address them directly.

[Loony BoB]

I hear Versus is actually just a codename for a mission to colonise the moon, and this is in fact what SE are working with Sony on.

[Ouch!]

It has already been confirmed that Final Fantasy XIV will not be impacted by this at all, and why would it be? They've devoted so much already in the way of resources (both personnel and financial) toward Final Fantasy XIV's re-release, that they cannot afford to scale back without eating a huge financial hit.

As far as Eidos goes, given that their CEO is now the top pick to take over as Director, I think they're probably going to be fine (especially since that acquisition has been very profitable for the company).

[Loony BoB]

If there is a shining light in Wada's reign, it's probably the aquisition of Eidos. I doubt they'll change much there, and Wada always let SE Europe (Eidos' new name) run their own show.

[Ouch!]

This (http://www.vg247.com/2013/03/26/square-financials-tomb-raider-hitman-sleeping-dogs-fail-to-hit-sales-targets/) was an interesting article about some of what prompted this whole announcement. It's a bit worrisome that 3.4 million copies in one month was below expectations for Tomb Raider. It sounds to me like Square Enix has a problem managing development costs in relation to realistic sales expectations. The three games cited in that article all have solid scores, and the issue clearly isn't quality there.

I really do hope that the biggest change to come out of this whole mess is that they can look to the success that Yoshi-P has had with interacting with fans and the media during the development of ARR. The game has been getting a great deal of positive attention from the media lately where Square Enix has otherwise been a punchline more often than not. It's time for SE to stop hoarding its secrets and actually engage their customers and the media.

[Loony BoB]

The problem that I have with unrealistic sales projections is the fear that XIV:ARR might suffer from this, too. If they actually expect to get massive, massive numbers into ARR then I'm worried for the game's future. Fingers crossed they aren't going to be unreasonable about it.

[Roogle]

Unrealistic expectations make me wonder who is in charge of their financial planning. It is not wise to count on a massively multiplayer online role-playing game to automatically generate nearly as much revenue as World of Warcraft.

[edczxcvbnm]

I have not been a fan of Square for a long time. Their big tent poll games always seem underwhelming now. I wanted to see what the stats where on what they have released since 2007 and it all became clear. They have released 37 games that they developed or had a hand in developing since 2007. 25 of those games are on the DS or PSP. One of them was an arcade game and the 2 on the PS2 were nothing more than an update to an already released game (FFXII Internation and Kingdom Hears Final Mix+).

That leaves just 10 (one also came out on the DS) games on the Wii,360 or PS3. Those games are as follows

Dragon Quest X: Mezameshi Itsutsu no Shuzoku Online
Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers
Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time
Mario Sports Mix
Soul Eater: Monotone Princess
Final Fantasy XIII
Final Fantasy XIII-2
Kingdom Hearts 1.5 HD Remix
Final Fantasy XIV
The Last Remnant

That does not look like a very sexy line up. I think they are stretched too thin at Dev and work too much on the handhelds. Nothing wrong with handhelds but they have not exactly been releasing gold their either.

Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy
Dissidia Final Fantasy
Dissidia: Final Fantasy Universal Tuning
Final Fantasy III
Final Fantasy IV: The Complete Collection
Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light
Snoopy DS: Let's Go Meet Snoopy and His Friends!

Those are my favorites and some of the others are probably fine just not up my alley like the FF Tactics games, Chrystal Chronicles or Kingdom Hearts.

I don't know...to me they have not released anything really exciting in years. I look down the list and here is what stands out to me as cool at a glace (despite what I really might think of the games...I hate FFXIII for example)
FFVII: Crisis Core
The World Ends with You
Final Fantasy XIII
The Last Remnant

I have played 2 of those games and only 1 I liked.

To me, change can't come fast enough.

[Del Murder]

The World Ends With You was a great game and probably the last original thing SE has made.

[Aulayna]

The World Ends With You was a great game and probably the last original thing SE has made.

Agreed, fully.

[Wolf Kanno]

Wait wait wait... You're telling me the Executive Producer for Unlimited Saga, quite possibly one of the most reviled games released by Squenix in the last decade is going to be put in charge of the company...
:tonberry: RIP :tonberry:
Square Enix
2003 - 2013

Okay, sarcasm aside, I'm not sure how I feel about this, while I certainly don't like the direction Wada took the company I do have to respect his ability to turn Square's financial debacle from the early 2000s back into a profitable company and god knows that Eidos seems to be having some kind of damn Renaissance now that they are under SE's umbrella; but I'm kind of happy this may mean SE will get some much needed reorganization. I doubt this will effect any current projects being released this year, but I do hope this means that someone will finally take a much needed look at SE's Japanese in-house development and streamline it so we don't have to wait entire console generations to see crap get released from the Japanese studios. Hell, maybe Type-0 will get a worldwide release finally and Versus XIII might see more daylight than cryptic updates about future cryptic updates. Course this is all speculative and for all we know, this reorganization of upper management will have absolutely no effect on the developers side of things (which is incredibly likely) so I wouldn't exactly be pulling out the chardonnay and getting reading to sing "Ding Dong the Witch is Dead" just yet.

[NeoCracker]

I still haven't played Unlimited Saga...

[silentenigma]

Break out that new bottle of wine!
-Chrono Break
-FF7 without ruining it again
-Sakaguchi returns
-Nobuo, Mitsuda, Matsuno
-New ambitious IP
-(As if any of that will happen....) ;_;

[Spooniest]

Break out that old bottle of wine!


Fixed that for you

[Wolf Kanno]

Found a new article that explains what Wada leaving and the financial loss SE is expecting may mean. (http://www.forbes.com/sites/danielnyegriffiths/2013/03/26/square-enix-head-wada-to-step-down-extraordinary-loss-predicted/) Its does sound like they plan on restructuring their development side of the business which sounds like a good idea.

[Spooniest]

Show of hands:

Who'd like to see what SE does with limited resources?

:D

[silentenigma]

Fixed that for you

Good eye, thank you.

[edczxcvbnm]

Show of hands:

Who'd like to see what SE does with limited resources?

:D

Make another MASTERFUL Final Fantasy movie?

That they spend $500 million making?

[Pumpkin]

Wait wait wait... You're telling me the Executive Producer for Unlimited Saga, quite possibly one of the most reviled games released by Squenix in the last decade is going to be put in charge of the company.

I know I have played Unlimited Saga, but I cannot for the life of me remember anything about it other than the case. Don't know why. Why was it so reviled?

[Rostum]

Found a new article that explains what Wada leaving and the financial loss SE is expecting may mean. (http://www.forbes.com/sites/danielnyegriffiths/2013/03/26/square-enix-head-wada-to-step-down-extraordinary-loss-predicted/) Its does sound like they plan on restructuring their development side of the business which sounds like a good idea.

Thanks, that's a good read and some good insight!

[Loony BoB]

Show of hands:

Who'd like to see what SE does with limited resources?

:D

Make another MASTERFUL Final Fantasy movie?

That they spend $500 million making?
I think that goes against the idea of 'limited resources'. :p

[Wolf Kanno]

Wait wait wait... You're telling me the Executive Producer for Unlimited Saga, quite possibly one of the most reviled games released by Squenix in the last decade is going to be put in charge of the company.

I know I have played Unlimited Saga, but I cannot for the life of me remember anything about it other than the case. Don't know why. Why was it so reviled?

It did well in Japan, but abysmal abroad. Largely because the game decided it would be a great idea to bring back the concept of dice rolls from PnP RPGs, so every time you performed any kind of battle action you had to deal with a modified slot reel (think Tifa's Limit Break) and it was pretty easy to botch everything. It also had an unstructured story and a terrible board game style world map, with equally cumbersome controls. The SaGa franchise has always been known for being really experimental but Unlimited SaGa took it to a whole new level.

[Spooniest]

The SaGa franchise has always been known for being really experimental but Unlimited SaGa took it to a whole new level.

If anything I'm glad this guy isn't a developer anymore. Perhaps he's more talented at management than at game design?

[Wolf Kanno]

From what little information I could dig up on him, he sounds like he is a bit like Wada, more of the accountant/business side than the creative type. He's been an accountant and Finance Officer more than an actual game developer, producing Unlimited SaGa is one of his few projects he worked an, and that's assuming there isn't another guy at the company with the same name.

[Old Manus]

I think it's going to take a titanic effort to bring SE up from the farce of continual mediocre games it has become back to anything it once was. I mean, I hope it does, but I lost faith a while ago.

[Bolivar]

I do think the company could use a change in direction and I hope it will be in a positive direction as someone else takes the reigns. No one can deny that Square just isn't making the same caliber of releases as they used to.

But I'm not going to act like this is them pulling down the statue of Saddam Hussein. A LOT of really awesome games came out under Wada's watch, even in the last few years.

edit: and I have no idea how they were thinking they were going to get more sales out of those three games, but makin 3.4 mil on Tomb Raider in such a competitive game market is something they should feel blessed for.

[XxSephirothxX]

The use of "extraordinary" in their press release referring to money lost last quarter is pretty funny to me. I don't know why, exactly--maybe because that doesn't seem like a word that should be used in press materials at all. It's like shit was so bad they couldn't even spin it.

Square Enix's management has clearly made a lot of mistakes over the past decade or so. Hard to know exactly how much blame Wada deserves, specifically, but some top-level shakeups can only be a good thing. An infusion of new blood will do the place good.

This actually reminds me of Keiji Inafune leaving Capcom and explaining how the industry turning developers into salarymen (http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=411847) discourages creativity. I feel like that's definitely happened with a lot of the higher-ups at Square.

[tidlelover]

The use of "extraordinary" in their press release referring to money lost last quarter is pretty funny to me. I don't know why, exactly--maybe because that doesn't seem like a word that should be used in press materials at all. It's like trout was so bad they couldn't even spin it.

Square Enix's management has clearly made a lot of mistakes over the past decade or so. Hard to know exactly how much blame Wada deserves, specifically, but some top-level shakeups can only be a good thing. An infusion of new blood will do the place good.

This actually reminds me of Keiji Inafune leaving Capcom and explaining how the industry turning developers into salarymen (http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=411847) discourages creativity. I feel like that's definitely happened with a lot of the higher-ups at Square.

Extraordinary was meant for their investors, it was actually supposed to be reassuring, letting investors know they don't expect this to repeat next quarter!