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Square Enix announced that it will replace its president and CEO Yosuke Matsuda, who is stepping down from the job after many years in the role.
He will be replaced by Takashi Kiryu, who is currently the chief strategy officer. This comes after the company made heavy investments in blockchain technology.
The company said in a statement, “Under the rapid change of business environment surrounding the entertainment industry, the proposed change is intended to reshape the management team with the goal of adopting ever-evolving technological innovations and maximizing the creativity of the company’s group in order to deliver even greater entertainment to its customers around the world.”
The change will be effective in June 2023, after the company’s annual shareholder meeting in May.
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Matsuda has run the company for a long time, but he also presided over one of the company’s biggest retreats as he sold the company’s Western studios such as Eidos Montreal, Crystal Dynamics Square Enix Montreal to Embracer Group for $300 million. That meant he disposed of properties such as Tomb Raider and then focused on an expansion into blockchain games. Square Enix also released the critically panned Forspoken title.
Back in January, in spite of a crash in cryptocurrency with the FTX meltdown and an accompanying drop in prices for non-fungible tokens, Matsuda issued another letter saying the company would continue to invest in cryptocurrency.
Kiryu, 48, has been at Square Enix since 2020, and he became director of Square Enix in May 2022.
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