Square Enix is one of the most reputed Japanese publishers in the gaming world. The publisher and developer are known for some of their most influential works. These include titles such as Final Fantasy, Chrono Trigger, among many others. With their game loved by many, over the years the company’s focus has shifted towards other avenues, notably NFTs. These have put the company under scrutiny by the community.
It seems the company plans on changing its focus, shifting it towards appealing to the global audience. After all, their Japanese peers like Capcom, SEGA, Koei Tecmo and others are performing exceptionally well once they shifted their eyes towards the overseas market.
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In the company’s annual overview for 2022, Yosuke Matsuda, president of Square Enix, stressed the importance of appealing to the global market. Matsuda said that competing solely in the Japanese market is difficult in the current year. Hence, they must produce successful titles that connect with the global market.
“Achieving major growth in the game industry is difficult now for companies that compete primarily in the Japanese market, given its greying demographics,” Matsuda writes (via pushsquare).
“As such, it is critical for our business that we produce hit titles that speak to the global market, which offers greater scale in terms of both customers and sales volumes.”
Matsuda also mentions that reliance on the Japanese market simply isn’t sufficient because of the size and scope of modern, big-budget game development.
“the Japanese market is no longer sufficient for achieving a level of earnings that enables us to recoup our development investment and generate a profit, and we, therefore, need to approach our development efforts based on the assumption that we have to succeed in the global market.”
It is a strange comment coming from Matsuda, seeing how Square Enix earlier this year sold the entirety of the Europe partner studios over to Embracer Group. It will be interesting to see how they try to entice the global market soon.
