Enix – Gloomberg News

3Mar

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Gaming

Square Enix CEO Who Constantly Pushed NFT Games To Be Replaced

Screenshot: Square Enix / KotakuSquare Enix is getting a new boss. Yosuke Matsuda has served as the Final Fantasy publisher’s CEO for 10 years, and spent the last couple of those hyping up NFTs and other blockchain scams. He’s now set to be replaced by a relative newcomer, pending shareholder approval in June.The company announced the organizational shakeup on Friday, claiming it was needed in order to chase more technological innovation. Takashi Kiryu, the new CEO, has only been at Square for a couple years, and prior to that was General Manager at the Dentsu Innovation Initiative, a business group exploring exciting opportunities in, among other things, the metaverse.Here’s the reason Square Enix gave for switching bosses:Under the rapid change of business environment surrounding the ent...

Sonic Co-Creator Yuji Naka Arrested Over Dragon Quest Game

Over the past 24 hours a number of people in Japan—including a Square Enix employee—have been arrested on insider trading charges related to a Dragon Quest game announcement. Legendary Sega designer Yuji Naka is reportedly among them.The scandal centers around a studio called Aiming, which in 2020 was announced as the developer of a new Dragon Quest game, called Tact. Last night, it was first alleged that 38-year-old Square Enix employee Taisuke Sazaki, who has worked on Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts games, knew of the deal before it was publicly announced, and along with a friend purchased a ton of shares in Aiming, hoping to profit when their share price (presumably) went up.Naka, 57, who is credited as one of the main creators of Sonic the Hedgehog and who has also worked on everythi...

Former Deus Ex, Tomb Raider Boss Unloads On Square Enix Japan

Image: Deus ExBack in May, Japanese publisher Square Enix announced it was selling a number of Western studios it had owned since 2009, including Eidos Montreal (Deus Ex) and Crystal Dynamics (Tomb Raider). For Stephane D’Astous, who founded Eidos Montreal and left the company in 2013, the deal marks the end of a decade-long “train wreck in slow motion”.In an interview with Gamesindustry, D’Astous lets loose on his former bosses, blaming Square Enix’s management in both Japan and London for many of their Western studios’ troubles. He particularly references Square Enix’s relentless drive for astronomical sales, which became so famous among the industry (and even fans) that it became something of a running joke. In this instance, one year Japan had been expecting a $65 million profit, when ...