Square Enix Plans To Grow Internal Development in 2023
According to the company's president Yosuke Matsuda, the sale of three European studios was part of larger restructural reforms set to "reconfigure" Square Enix's portfolio of titles.
On January 1, Square Enix's president Yosuke Matsuda published his annual new year's letter in which, among others, he reaffirmed the company's focus on blockchain games adding that it will reveal more blockchain projects in 2023.
Apart from this, Matsuda mentioned some other aims the company will pursue in 2023 including the goal to grow Square Enix's internal development.
He noted that the sale of Crystal Dynamics, Eidos-Montréal, and Square Enix Montréal was in line with the company's plan to "further concentrate [its] resources as the increasing sophistication and complexity of game development have made such endeavors more costly to pursue" adding that selling the studios was part of restructural reforms and was "designed to effect fundamental change in [its] portfolio of studios."
Matsuda explained that those structural changes will help the company expand its own talent pool and strengthen its internal development capabilities.
"Divesting studios and strengthening our internal development capabilities may on the surface appear to be moves that are at odds with one another," he wrote. "However, we must flexibly and constantly revisit our medium/long-term title portfolio and the development studios that create it in light of the environment in which we find ourselves."
In addition, Matsuda shared that on the publishing side, there also will be a change – the company has started moving away from its previous "geography- and function-based model" which meant that Square Enix's Japanese and Western publishing organizations operated independently from each other. Now the company plans to stick to the "One Square Enix" approach which involves creating an end-to-end global publishing organization.
You can learn more about Square Enix's plans for 2023 here. Also, don't forget to join our 80 Level Talent platform, our Reddit page, and our Telegram channel, follow us on Instagram and Twitter, where we share breakdowns, the latest news, awesome artworks, and more.
