SQUARE ENIX CEO Yoichi Wada's Action Until His Resignation

SQUARE ENIX CEO Yoichi Wada's Action Until His Resignation
	Today I want to talk about the Dark Side of SQUARE ENIX.
	And the Dark Side is?
	As you all know, CEO Yoichi Wada. Fire him and we can solve 70% of SQUARE ENIX's problems.
	I had heard about that somewhere...
	He has many fans on twitter. As a supporter of him since a long time ago, I want to talk about a few aspects of him.
	When did you support him...
	I have always talked about him with repect!
	Makoto-san had said "I don't know why such a man ignoring the feeling of users could become CEO" in 2002, and commented "Yoichi Wada just wanted to save himself" in 2006.
	How did you respect him...
	Let's start.
	Don't ignore my words!
	Yoichi Wada is thinking one thing now.
	And that is?
	How to escape.
	From what?
	The declining SQUARE ENIX.
	Why should a CEO escape from his own company...
	Yoichi Wada is increasing revenue by sacrificing the brand value. You can see that from FINAL FANTASY series and other games by SE. Release with low quality to earn money. The end of such path is obvious.
	You mention FINAL FANTASY series, but FINAL FANTASY XIII worldwide sales is 5.5 million, more than XII. Not bad I suppose?
	Look at Japan sales, FF10 sold 2.35 million, FF12 sold 2.32 million, FF13 sold 1.9 million only. Oversea market is developing so there is an increase, but in Japan it is classics and still doing worse. The future is worrisome.
	But there is another view huh.
	The world market is still expanding concerning Europe, China as well as Brazil. So it is possible to enhance the sales figure. But the truth is the brand value is decreasing.
	FINAL FANTASY XIV is a good example. They are not focusing in Japan, US and Europe only, but China also.
	Figure looks good just because the gamer population is increasing. In the past, Japan RPG's Big 2 are Dragon Quest and FINAL FANTASY.
	Someone said we should count Tales of series into Big 3.
	Counting Tales of? Are you crazy?
	Not my opinion. Someone said that...
	But the recent situation is...
	How's that?
	JRPG Big 3 are Pokemon, Dragon Quest and Monster Hunter. FF is no longer counted in the ranking.
	Monster Hunter is action game, but someone think that is ARPG.
	After Yoichi Wada became CEO, SE crushed many classic brands but creating not even 1 new brand.
	Not even 1!?
	Yep. Just making games under the name of DRAGON QUEST, FINAL FANTASY and KINGDOM HEARTS. They had made something new but never become successful brand.
	Why?
	When you create something new it is hard to success in the first time. You need to make sequel and improve it until success. Monster Hunter and Dynasty Warriors are examples. The first game could only sold 0.X million, but they improve in sequel and finally become million seller.
	How about SQUARE ENIX?
	They would just continue the development until a certain time and just sell it, no matter it is completed or not. Of course the quality won't be good and the sales is bad. And the company just think that game has no future and stop any sequel/ How can such method create good stuff?
	Deadline is important but they should satisfy the expectation of users huh.
	They had created Fullmetal Alchemist right?
	Publishing is different from game development. That depends on the talent of 1 author. Of course they need editors but a few people are enough. While game development is a work of many people, and that needs leader. They don't have good leader as they had been restored and left SQUARE ENIX. Of course they won't grow some new talent. Such situation is caused by Yoichi Wada's business mistake.
	That should involve responsiblity problem. How could he do such things?
	Because he can escape.
	How?
	He just need to keep a growing figure until he resign. If FF's Japan sales drop 10% next time and derease 10% more at the next next sequel, he just need to assure the worldwide sales keep on growing in developing market. That's the story of 5 years later. And even though other sections are declining, he can still make good figure by buying other companies. And after he pretend a good result, he would resign.
	Why does he need to resign?
	He won't stay in a collapsing company. The good figure by such business method can't continue anymore, and someday the brand value would bankrupt and game sales would crush to the ground. He would just resign before that and keep a good record for himself.
	How about SQUARE ENIX after that?
	The next CEO can't stop the collapsing company to fall. And Yoichi Wada would come out and say SE fail because his successor is too bad.
	......
	I had paid respect to him for a long time but now I realize he really is just a bastard concerning his own profit only. He had talked about many ideals which could be possible, but he never take action to realize the ideals and throw the responsiblity to staff. He said on his twitter that "Fire 1/3 of our staff and hire some 20 years old youngsters, and we can solve 70% of SQUARE ENIX's problems". He thought his staff is useless huh.
	What does he mean?
	Just want to cut labour cost and make an army obeying his order. Even if he could solve 70% of SQUARE ENIX's problems, there will be 80% new problem created.
	OMG...
	Anyway, as a CEO he is talented. He improved the figure of SQUARE ENIX during downturn and that's respectful. But as an owner of content business company, he is foolish. Sacrificing brand value for short-term profit, buying new brands from other companies through M&A and do the same mistake again. Any rubbish CEO can do that and that's not content business want. That's all.