Earlier this week, Square Enix began a restructuring that saw countless employees replaced. The restructuring is an attempt by new Square Enix president Takashi Kiryu to address “slacking sales” across the company’s portfolio, from AAA games to mobile titles. As part of the move, employees such as Naoki Hamaguchi, the director of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, were promoted to senior managers in the future. However, things aren’t looking so rosy for one of Square Enix’s other major RPG franchises: Dragon Quest
Bloomberg reports that a top producer on the series, Yu Miyake, is stepping down from the series as part of Square’s restructuring and will now lead development in the company’s mobile games division. Miyake, who was with the Dragon Quest franchise since 1992, has reportedly been relocated there for the coming year after a series of delays Dragon Quest XII. Already announced in 2021Otherwise you hardly heard anything Dragon Quest 12 until now, which doesn’t give much hope that this game will see the light of day soon.
Accordingly BloombergSources close to the matter say that Yosuke Saito, a producer at Square known for his work on the Nier
Kiryu, as president of Square Enix, has made no attempt to hide his desire to slim down the company and shake things up. He opened the year by declaring that the company “aggressive” in his use of AI and told investors that he wanted to do so Squared to make fewer games
Per BloombergAccording to the report, Kiryu’s recent corporate restructuring is not the only way he has tried to achieve this goal. According to their sources, he also dropped a number of unannounced projects in the last year. Kiryu has also apparently imposed “controls” on producers to contain and streamline the production process. The hope appears to be to focus more on internally developed AAA games rather than relying on “external resources.”
