New year, new New Year letter from Square President Yosuke Matsuda. In the “New Year’s Letter” for 2023, Matsuda spoke about the restructuring that was carried out internally at Square Enix last year. He also explained where the Japanese company should focus in the coming years. We summarize the most important things for you.
Worldwide success with Japanese studios
Last year became Square Enix is known to be separated from almost all western assets. Western studios Crystal Dynamics, Square Enix Montreal, and Eidos Montreal approached Embracer Group for a bargain price of just US$300 million. The package not only included more than 1,100 employees, but also a catalog of 50 brands, including Tomb Raider, Deus Ex and Thief. Of the Western franchises, only Just Cause, Outriders, and Life is Strange remained with Square Enix.
Now, Yosuke Matsuda has once again explained what’s behind the deal: Internally, Square Enix has been restructured. On the one hand, the goal of sales was to improve the capital efficiency of the company, on the other hand, they want to focus on the strengths of the Square portfolio and pool resources in the future . At the same time, Square Enix has identified the challenge that game development is becoming more and more expensive and at the same time that it is no longer enough for your own games to succeed in Japan’s domestic market. With the new focus and expansion of existing development teams, they want to create games in the future that can be successful around the world.
Focus more on Blockchain, Metaverse and Co.
Already a year ago, Yosuke Matsuda explained, that he finds topics like the Metaverse, NFTs, and blockchain extremely exciting. In subsequent financial reports, Square officials also explained that the future lies not in the classic development and sale of games for PC and consoles, but in areas such as artificial intelligence, mobile, blockchain and the metaverse, and that’s exactly where they want to invest.
The fact that the blockchain hype took a hit last year and the NFT/crypto market crashed doesn’t seem to deter Square Enix from these plans. On the contrary, Yosuke Matsuda emphasizes that the company intends to continue to make significant investments in these areas in the future.
“New technologies and frameworks lead to innovation, but they also create significant confusion. After weathering these societal tides, some of these technologies and frameworks are gradually becoming part of people’s lives, eventually giving rise to new businesses and growth. After the excitement and excitement that surrounded NFTs and the Metaverse in 2021, 2022 has been a year of high volatility in the blockchain space. However, if this turns out to be a step in a process leading to the creation of rules and a more transparent trading environment, it has certainly been good for the growth of the blockchain conversation.“
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Matsuda goes on to explain that while some countries are working to toughen the regulation of Web 3.0 companies, the Japanese government is going in the opposite direction and promoting these technologies: “In June 2022, the Japanese cabinet signed a plan called “Priority Policy Program for Realizing a Digital Society”, which provides for the creation of an environment to promote the concept of Web 3.0, including the use of technology-based NFTs blockchain. The Japanese digital agency has also launched a Web 3.0 study group.“
What games is Square Enix currently working on?
The good news: this year, we can expect square universe games that don’t require any NFTs. RPG fans can look forward to Forspoken (released January 24, 2023), Octopath Traveler 2 (February 16, 2023), Final Fantasy XVI (June 22, 2023), and Final Fantasy VII Rebirth (Winter 2023). The teams are also working on new games for the Dragon Quest and Kingdom Hearts series.