\In the past fiscal year,
Square Enix saw a 70% decline in net profit and posted an extraordinary loss of 22.1 billion yen after abandoning previously greenlit projects that were deemed unprofitable. This was followed by the announcement of a
big change in policy – including a focus on quality over quantity and regular AAA releases.
While this
new mid-term business plan did include mention of “mid-class titles” too, the emphasis on “high-quality” and “AAA titles” caused people to wonder if Square Enix would be focusing solely on their major IPs at the expense of smaller, more experimental titles. In a recent shareholders’ meeting, Square Enix’s CEO Takashi Kiryu addressed this concern.
According to independent journalist
michsuzuki, when asked if the “quality over quantity” approach of the new business plan means no more indie games, Kiryu responded, “If we define ‘indie games’ as casual, small- to medium- scale games – we are working hard on these too. I can’t name specific titles at the moment, but our development pipeline does not only include major titles. Indie game development should not be ruled out.”
