Yoichi Wada, Square Enix's president and CEO has resigned to his position. With the end of the fiscal year, with takes place on March 31, the disappointing numbers from some of the biggest games and the low amount of profit (which right now is on negative) are the main aspects which made him resign.
The company is looking for a big change, and the time for it has started with Wada leaving his position.
Between the before mentioned numbers, it is said that Square Enix was expecting way more sales on games such as Sleeping Dogs, with 1.75 million copies sold; Tomb Raider, with 3.4 million of sold copies; and Hitman: Absolution, with 3.6 million copies; yet, these are not meeting the expectations so far.
"In particular, NA sales force was ineffective, ending up with two-thirds of number of units sold in Europe. Moreover, price pressure was strong, which forced spending additional channel costs such as price protection."
This has lead to a huge loss of money, as Square Enix had expected that, by this time, they should've had a 3 to 5 billion yen profit, while reality is that they are 13 billion yen under this, with a negative $138 million USD.
It was said by Square Enix that Yosuke Matsuda is expected to be its new president, confirmation of this is to happen in June.
"In view of the rapidly changing environment of the game businesses, the company has decided to implement major reforms and restructuring in its development policy, organizational structure, some business models, and others"
Comparing previous business years to the current one, the numbers are quite conclusive, as this year they are expecting a net loss of 13 billion yen (as stated before), which equals to around £91 million / $138 million, while last year they reported a 6 billion yen (equal to £42 million / $64 million) profit.
