Square Enix CEO Yoichi Wada resigns

[Qalbert]

http://www.joystiq.com/2013/04/03/sq...-to-be-out-by/

Last night we received word Square Enix's Los Angeles office had "a number of positions" eliminated, we've since been filling in the details. Square Enix America mostly handled marketing, public relations and other logistics for the region. According to two sources, who asked we not use their names out of fear it would affect their severance package, here's what we've been told so far.

Half of marketing has been cut, which is estimated at 10 people. Public relations, which we understand is approximately seven people, will stick around until late June (post E3), after that only three or four will remain. One source notes "close to around 20" were let go in accounting, IT and events, with another five to 10 people who left community and support last week.

We've also been informed that Mike Fischer, president and CEO at Square Enix America, will be let go around May. The head of marketing will be let go right after E3.

Employees at the Los Angeles office were apparently informed they weren't singled out by corporate and that layoffs will occur at Square Enix's European and Japanese divisions as well, which is all part of the corporate restructuring currently going on at the company.

[Brill Weave]

Damn. Start taking bets to see if they last the the year at this point.

[shidobu]

Damn. Start taking bets to see if they last the the year at this point.

who are we talking about SE as a whole or... the NA branch ? that seems to be getting the shit end of this deal

[Kurokikaze]

Wow they're letting SE Europe's CEO run SE Holdings... That's crazy. lol

[The Blackrose]

Wow they're letting SE Europe's CEO run SE Holdings... That's crazy. lol

Considering SE nearly threw Eidos under the bus over the recent figures, it's a surprise that they're elevating the CEO that high.

Not surprised that the NA office was the first to be hit. EU office will most likely be next. Probably won't hear about the JP shake up for a while. Now if you excuse me, I have to go perform the "Oust Toriyama" dance.

[Correction]

Not surprised that the NA office was the first to be hit. EU office will most likely be next. Probably won't hear about the JP shake up for a while. Now if you excuse me, I have to go perform the "Oust Toriyama" dance.

Good luck with that. Wada only resigned from his CEO position and continues to work for SE

[Kyreth]

Wow they're letting SE Europe's CEO run SE Holdings... That's crazy. lol

Almost as if they want him to fuck up openly enough to can him without a backlash from any part of the company that's kissing his ass.

[Correction]

Square Enix Detail Where Their Losses Are Coming From

“Let’s talk about Sleeping Dogs: we were looking at selling roughly 2~2.5 million units in the EUR/NA market based on its game content, genre and Metacritic scores. In the same way, game quality and Metacritic scores led us to believe that Hitman had potential to sell 4.5~5 million units and 5~6 million units for Tomb Raider in EUR/NA and Japanese markets combined.

“Of course, we want to hedge risk in budgeting these units directly into the forecast, therefore we base the forecast on 80-90% of the total sales potential of each title. However, it is disappointing that our results fell below these marks.”

Should be noted that SE is not alone in putting that much stock in Metacritic. Just goes to show you how misguided most executive boards are and how poorly they understand their own market.

[Tyrath]

So their best recent games are to blame? GG.

[Kurokikaze]

So their best recent games are to blame? GG.

That's fuckin sad. But yeah they need a wake up call... Most of the people on these forums could've easily told them those numbers were a little too high.

Decent score on Metacritic =! High sales.

[Tyrath]

Not to mention, a bunch of those numbers would be significantly higher if they counted download only purchases. You can't release a game on PC and then not count the downloads.

[Kurokikaze]

Not to mention, a bunch of those numbers would be significantly higher if they counted download only purchases. You can't release a game on PC and then not count the downloads.

I agree. Right off the bat I can tell you that Sleeping Dogs probably did well on PC/Steam just based on the fact that all my friends who got the game got it for PC because of the HD download pack.

[Qalbert]

well obviously you can, lol

[Qalbert]

I agree. Right off the bat I can tell you that Sleeping Dogs probably did well on PC/Steam just based on the fact that all my friends who got the game got it for PC because of the HD download pack.

also steam selling it for like a dollar by accident that one time. pretty sure raggy bought like 5 or 6 copies to gift

[Correction]

Finally SE owns up to DQ X underperforming.

"We have done everything we can do to adapt and respond to the drastically changing environment. However, we have not been able to accomplish satisfactory results since FY2011," Wada said. "I intended to do what had to be done, but these results came despite my best efforts. We are performing negatively in the Amusement sector, negative in EUR/NA console games, and although Social Media Games are doing well, MMO is not performing to the level we anticipated.

"The seeds that we have planted have by chance, or by necessity, all worked in synch negatively resulting in a huge loss for FY2013."

[Lonely]

We are performing negatively in the Amusement sector, negative in EUR/NA console games, and although Social Media Games are doing well, MMO is not performing to the level we anticipated.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-jYOE3MbhCx...o-be-upset.gif

DQX sucks though so no surprises there. Aren't they suppose to wait for a MMO to profit overtime?

[Correction]

What they're saying is that DQX subscriptions are not keeping up with their expectations. It's been seven months and if it has already plateaued or started to taper off it's a really really bad sign when their next large-budget release is another console MMO.

[Lucavi]

Not surprised in the slightest. People call EA's sports franchises rehashes, and they're correct. But, in the same breath, some of those people will claim that DQs aren't rehashes, which is hilarious.

[Correction]

The DQ brand is still plenty strong, but several things went wrong with DQX. The first is that it's an MMO; a market not filled with the kind of sustainable revenue to float a 3.2k employee company unless that company is named Blizzard. The second is that it was Wii+Wii U. While DQX as a brand has always chased the highest install base for their mainline franchise, the Wii U is an unmitigated disaster in every territory and without a PC release DQX is chained to a sinking ship. Finally you have a general lack of interest in Dragon Quest outside of Japan. It just isn't nearly as strong in North America or Europe. So they can't pin their hopes on reviving it with the localization. It's become clear lately that SE's expectations are fucking insane so one can only speculate how they thought DQX would do in FY2013.

[Jakson]

Pardon my ignorance, but doesn't DQX do well in Japan? Number I heard was like 400k subscribers and that was supposed to be pretty good. Is 400k true and just not good enough?