Takashi Kiryu

President Takashi Kiryu has shared his plans to slim down Square Enix's lineup of titles.

Shares of Square Enix Holdings Co. tumbled 16% in their biggest decline in 13 years after its president said sales of recent big-budget games disappointed and that it would take years for a recent reorganization to bear fruit.

Square Enix seems to have been disappointed by the sales of Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth. According to Bloomberg, company president Takashi Kiryu revealed to analysts after its earnings call that Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth was unable to reach the launch momentum required to hit internal targets.

In a recent earnings call, Square Enix president Takashi Kiryu has revealed that, similar to Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth (backlink to other story), Final Fantasy 16 has also failed to hit sales targets. According to Bloomberg, Kiryu’s statement indicated that sales of Final Fantasy 16 had slowed down after the sales during the game’s launch period.

Three of Square Enix‘s most high profile recent releases sold worse than expected, the company’s president has reportedly said.

Square Enix‘s share price has dropped by nearly 16% following its FY2024 financial results on Monday.

Square Enix has admitted Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, Final Fantasy 16, and Foamstars failed to meet its expectations.

Square Enix has announced a major shakeup dubbed ‘Square Enix Reboots and Awakens’ that will see them embrace full multi-platform game development, after PlayStation 5 exclusives Final Fantasy 16, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth and Foamstars all failed to meet internal expectations. Additionally, they are making layoffs affecting US and European staff, including the Square Enix Collective indie label – per VGC.

Square Enix is reportedly preparing to lay off an unconfirmed number of workers as part of restructuring efforts.

Square Enix recently announced a new medium-term business plan to focus on multi-platform releases and games delivering on the premise of “fun.” However, it also outlined plans to “rebuild overseas business divisions from the ground up,” which meant “optimizing costs at its European and American offices via structural reforms.” Unfortunately, it seems layoffs are part of the equation.

Square Enix is set to make an unconfirmed number of layoffs as part of ongoing company restructuring, it told staff in an internal meeting on Monday, VGC understands.

Square Enix has published a new medium-term business plan, which includes making its AAA games multiplatform going forward.

Square Enix appears to have cancelled or at least rescoped the size of multiple unannounced games as a result of an internal review into its development process, with a «content disposal» loss totalling 22.1 billion yen, or $141 million. As a result of the investigation, the publisher shall «revise the Group’s approach to the development of high-definition (HD) games with the intention of being more selective and focused in the allocation of development resources».

Square Enix looks to have canceled multiple unannounced games, accruing more than $140 million in development costs on said games.

Square Enix has suggested it’s cancelled or rescoped unannounced game projects, as it continues to reassess its overall development strategy.

Square Enix has revised its approach to PC and console game development, and absorbed ¥22.1 billion (approx $140.9 million) in what it calls “content abandonment losses.”

Yuji Naka, co-creator of Sonic the Hedgehog, has returned to social media after an extended hiatus to accuse Dragon Quest producer Yu Miyake of lying during Naka's insider trading trial last year.

Yuji Naka has resurfaced on Twitter, with a spicy message to start off our week.

Square Enix has decided to shake up the management of one of their top video game properties, Dragon Quest.

A longtime Square Enix producer is stepping down from his role overseeing the highly anticipated Dragon Quest 12: The Flames of Fate. His departure comes amid ongoing delays in the Dragon Quest 12: The Flames of Fate development, signaling a shift within Square Enix's game development structure.

Yu Miyake is allegedly moving from his role as producer on the Dragon Quest series to another position within Square Enix.

Dragon Quest's series producer is reportedly stepping down from the role, and Nier's series producer could possibly replace him.

The long-serving top producer of legendary RPG series Dragon Quest has stepped down from the role, according to sources that spoke to RPS Maw tribute site Bloomberg. Yu Miyake, who has been involved with numerous DQ games since he joined Enix in 1989 as marketer on DQ books, is moving on to head up Square Enix’s mobile games.

Final Fantasy 15's director believes that game developers should familiarize themselves with generative AI.

Nier's series director has potentially teased a third game in the action-RPG saga.

A sequel to Nier: Automata might have been teased by series creator Yoko Taro at the Nier London Concert. The Nier franchise has been a bit of a breakout hit in the last couple of years, thanks to Yoko Taro's eccentric and unconventional game design and writing. Despite its recent success in other media forms, like an anime adaptation, novels, and concerts, some fans wonder if there will be a new mainline AAA game set in the same universe, or a direct follow-up to Nier: Automata.

Square Enix has ordered a complete review of its developmental pipeline to increase the quality of future games and streamline, optimise, and synergise its way into increased profit margins. That's under the direction of Square Enix Holdings president Takashi Kiryu, responsible for the company's "aggressive" pivot to AI, who announced the news during Square Enix's latest financial results briefing.

Square Enix is planning a major internal restructure of its game development system, as reported by Bloomberg Japan. The news came directly from Representative Director and President Takashi Kiryu, who spoke at the financial results briefing for analysts held on Monday.

Square Enix president Takashi Kiryu believes the company needs to diversify its gaming output, but also focus on fewer releases.

Square Enix appears to be on the verge of shaking up its development portfolio. According to its president, we may soon see fewer titles, but a more diverse array of genres coming out of a developer and publisher traditionally known for its massive RPG franchises.

Square Enix president Takashi Kiryu says he wants to diversify the studio's lineup of games by relying less on "strong IPs" like Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest.

Square Enix has confirmed that upcoming online shooter Foamstars includes AI-generated art.

PlayStation exclusive shooter Foamstars will feature AI-generated artwork, Square Enix has confirmed, with Foamstars producer Kosuke Okatani clarifying to VGC that «in terms of the content of the game, this makes up about 0.01% or even less.» 

Foamstars, Square Enix's Splatoon-like 4v4 online party shooter announced last year, is coming next month. The PlayStation exclusive will release February 6 as a day-one launch title on PS Plus, Sony and Square Enix confirmed Tuesday. The game will be available to download for free on PS5 and PS4 as part of the PlayStation Plus Monthly Games lineup for next month, starting February 6 through March 4. Foamstars was announced at a PlayStation Showcase in May last year, showing off soapy shooting and colourful characters, both heavily inspired by Nintendo's Splatoon games. A PS Plus release will likely attract more players to the multiplayer title in its early days.

As reported by VideoGameChronicle, Square Enix confirmed at a recent press event that their upcoming live service game, Foamstars, uses some assets generated by AI. This follows a New Year’s letter from the company’s president, Takashi Kiryu, that stated the company would more aggressively pursue the use of the technology.

The upcoming PlayStation exclusive Foamstarswill utilize AI for some of its artwork, as confirmed by producer Kosuke Okatani. Square Enix announced this colorful multiplayer hero shooter during a PlayStation Showcase event back in May, quickly drawing comparisons to Nintendo’s Splatoon series due to Foamstars’ primary gimmick of spraying the battlefield with foam to help navigate the environment or block enemy attacks. Foamstars is set to launch as part of the PlayStation Plus Monthly Games lineup on February 6, and if successful could kickstart a new wave of Splatoon-like games.

Square Enix's upcoming team shooter Foamstars will have a small amount of AI art, the developer has said.

Ned Luke, the voice actor behind Michael De Santa in Grand Theft Auto 5, has called out a company for using his voice as the basis of an unofficial AI chatbot.

In unsurprising news, publisher Square Enix has announced a bold new vision for the company in 2024, again promising to chase whatever the hottest speculative technology on the market happens to be. President Takashi Kiryu rang in the new year with a bold directive, confirming the firm will be «aggressive in applying AI and other cutting-edge technologies to both our content development and our publishing functions».

Square Enix president Takashi Kiryu says the company will be “aggressive” in using generative AI technology to create content, including in development and publishing. This not only means more investment in technologies but also a desire to use the tech for all kinds of development, and “create new forms of content” in a balance between product and marketing.

Square Enix President Takashi Kiryu has released a new year letter outlining the strategies that the publisher will be adopting going forward. One of those is the application of AI in content development as well as publishing, using AI in conjunction with other technologies. There is also talk of making the development chain more efficient, while on the publishing side there is more effort being put into better collaboration globally in an effort to expand the fan base of Square Enix titles with new games, as well as games from the publisher back catalogue.

Technology continues to evolve rapidly, and the hottest trend is the use of Artificial Intelligence, AI. To start 2024, Square Enix President and Representative Director Takashi Kiryu released a letter sharing his interest in adding more AI processes in developing future games.

In a New Year’s letter, Square Enix president Takashi Kiryu plans to be “aggressive in applying” generative AI to their “content development and publishing functions” going forward.

After singing its fingers on the hot stove of NFTs, Square Enix has decided to go in for another cheeky touch with AI—as stated by the company's new president Takashi Kiryu in a New Year's letter to his employees.

As customary every January 1st, the new president of Square Enix posted a public New Year's letter on the Japanese game publisher's website.

Square Enix representative director and president Takashi Kiryu has written a new year's letter outlining the Final Fantasy publisher's plans for 2024, while offering a few reflections on the year that was. The topline: they want to do more with generative "AI" machine learning tools, and they're still dead keen on metaversy VR/AR stuff. The blockchain remains a "focus", too, though it gets much less of a billing than in 2023's new year letter from Square Enix’s previous president Yosuke Matsuda.

Square Enix will be actively pushing into the generative AI field, exploring how it can be used in the company's internal games development.

Square Enix president Takashi Kiryu has already ruffled feathers in the new year by reaffirming a desire for the company to utilize AI technology in its upcoming games and projects.

Square Enix president Takashi Kiryu says the company will be “aggressive in applying” AI in its development and publishing efforts in the future.

Square Enix President Takashi Kiryu has released a new year letter outlining the strategies that the publisher will be adopting going forward. One of those is the application of AI in content development as well as publishing, using AI in conjunction with other technologies. There is also talk of making the development chain more efficient, while on the publishing side there is more effort being put into better collaboration globally in an effort to expand the fan base of Square Enix titles with new games, as well as games from the publisher back catalogue.

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Square Enix president Takashi Kiryu has said he hopes to boost profitability by revitalising the company’s high definition games segment.

At launch, Final Fantasy 16 sold over 3 million units worldwide, which isn’t exactly a number to scoff at by any metric, but not long afterward, it emerged that the game’s initial sales hadn’t met “the high end” of Square Enix’s expectations. While that may be true, however, ultimately, it seems the action RPG’s launch sales have still been in line with what the company was hoping for.

Square Enix has lost nearly $2 billion in value since the launch of Final Fantasy 16 in June, and a new report has cast doubt on the company’s ability to recover.

Renowned game developer and publisher Square Enix is facing hardships in the stock market. Following the release of Final Fantasy XVI, the stock price dropped from 7.540 yen on June 20 (the game launched on June 22) to the current value of 5.342.

Microsoft has announced an Xbox Digital Broadcast for Tokyo Game Show.

Development of Final Fantasy 16's PC version is finally underway.

Mena Sato Kato has joined Microsoft to lead Japanese partnership operations at Xbox.

At Final Fantasy 14 Fan Fest 2023, game director Naoki Yoshida (Yoshi-P) welcomed Xbox boss Phil Spencer onto the stage alongside Square Enix boss Takashi Kiryu to celebrate the announcement that Final Fantasy 14 is finally on its way to Xbox consoles after years of PlayStation console exclusivity. And it sounded like Microsoft had ensured even more Square Enix games will end up on Xbox in the coming years.

Japanese publishing giant Square Enix saw a 14 per cent increase in net sales.

Square Enix reported some steep drops in its latest financial report, leading the company’s stock to take a hit on the Japanese market. Notably, the company’s MMO segment saw a 22% drop in revenue year over year.

It’s sometimes very easy to forget that video games aren’t just businesses; they’re businesses with a lot going on and have to deal with success and failure at multiple levels. For example, several of the biggest developers/publishers have stocks that they do their best to keep up, and thus stockholders for them to please. When a company does well, its stock tends to go up. In contrast, when they do poorly or something doesn’t meet expectations, their stock tends to fall a bit. Square Enix recently released an earnings report, which apparently didn’t make people too happy.

Final Fantasy XVI failed to meet the high-end of Square Enix's sales expectations, according to company president Takashi Kiryu.

Final Fantasy XVI has been one of the more fascinating sales stories to watch in 2023, as the game launched as a PS5 exclusive – essentially positioned as a PlayStation first-party title – and many wondered if the gambit would pan out. Initially, Square Enix tried to paint a positive picture, boasting about how quickly the game reached the 3-million-units-sold mark, but now they seem to be singing a different tune.

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Final Fantasy XVI is the latest entry in the long-running RPG franchise. It represents a new direction for the series, and the game earned itself considerable critical acclaim upon release, scoring a 9 here on Destructoid. This hasn’t quite translated into financial success, at least according to the latest reports following the release of Square Enix’s first-quarter financial briefing.

Upon its highly anticipated launch last month, Final Fantasy 16 sold over 3 million units worldwide, with Square Enix stating shortly afterward that it considered the action RPG’s initial sales to be “extremely strong”. It seems, however, that the momentum of its sales has slowed down considerably since then.

Sales of Final Fantasy 16 did not meet Square Enix's high expectations, said president Takashi Kiryu.

Square Enix‘s share price in Japan has dropped by nearly 15% following the company’s latest earnings release.

Square Enix CEO Takashi Kiryu promised better support for Xbox platforms going forward during Final Fantasy XIV Fan Fest 2023 Las Vegas.

Since launching a decade ago, Final Fantasy XIV has been a PlayStation console exclusive, an arrangement many never expected to change. Well, surprise! Today during the big Final Fantasy XIV Fan Festival, Phil Spencer strode out onto the stage with FF14 producer Naoki Yoshida to announce the game is coming to Xbox early next year. Here’s what Phil had to say…