Dylan JackPresident Square Enix Takashi Kiryu said that he wants to diversify the line of the studio games, relying less on "Strong IP", such as Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest.
In recently published questions and answers with a financial briefing in November 2023, he admitted that, in his opinion, Square Enix lacks two areas when it comes to medium-term business plan. The second point is sometimes an insufficiently effective marketing of the company.
The first thing he noted is that, in his opinion, there is a tendency "rely on certain styles or genres of games". Namely, for games like Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy.
Since we have such strong IPs as Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy franchises, I believe that we tend to rely excessively on certain styles and genres of gameplay. Meanwhile, the tastes of buyers in the game market have changed, and they began to like the content of a variety of genres.
Indicating the success of Powerwash Simulator, which he calls "exception to our portfolio" And "game, well suitable for casual game", Kiryu continued: "I want to improve the qualifications of our developers by strengthening our internal development opportunities so that we can achieve greater variety in our Portfolio Games".
In the long run, we need to strengthen the inside of our development function. Speaking more specifically, I mean that we want to concentrate our resources at carefully selected new games that we will develop at a high level of quality. At the same time, instead of concentrating exclusively on major games, we want to take on new tasks, partly because we want to make diversity in our portfolio of games, as I have already noted, and also give our developers the opportunity to expand our set skills.
Of course, this does not mean at all that Square Enix will stop releasing the games Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest, but only says that the company wants to expand its presence in other genres.