According to the latest notice from Square Enix, the company has recently changed its management structure. Among those stepping down, fans will find Naoki Yoshida, more commonly known as Yoshi-P, leaving the Board of Directors. However, the director of Final Fantasy 14 is not leaving the company. The notice states that he will continue working as an Executive Officer. It is unclear why he stepped down from his previous position, but it may have been of his own volition. He has previously expressed his dislike for being a member of the Board of Directors.
Yoshi-P became an Executive Officer at Square Enix in 2015 and was promoted to Executive Director in 2018. This promotion was likely due to the success of Final Fantasy 14, which was nearly shut down before he revived the game and brought it to greater heights.
During an interview with a Dutch publication, Yoshi-P clearly stated that he had no interest in the position and only wanted to make fun games. “They probably just want to make a ton of money, but you can also just do that as a game developer,” Yoshida said.
Yoshi-P Continues to Lead Final Fantasy 14
Although this change may sound concerning, it is unlikely to affect Final Fantasy 14. Yoshi-P should still be in charge of the game, so fans can rest assured. However, this management restructuring may impact future releases.
Recently, Square Enix has decided to shift its strategy to focus more on quantity over quality. The company also intends to release new games on multiple platforms instead of keeping them as exclusives. This change in approach is motivated by the performance of Final Fantasy 16 and Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, which were released exclusively on PlayStation 5 for a limited time.
Many fans are neither surprised nor worried about Yoshi-P stepping down, considering the management restructuring to be expected. “Yep, it’s corporate deck shuffling to facilitate whatever changes Kiryu is wanting to make,” one Redditor commented.
Another Redditor mentioned that while this change may not directly affect Final Fantasy 14, the new Board of Directors may demand higher profits from the game in the future. One fan pointed out that with this demotion, Yoshi-P will lose his vote on major business decisions.
“If they decide they can make more money off the game, we could be seeing predatory microtransactions and changes in game design that make them tempting,” the fan added. Others joked that Yoshi-P might actually be happy about the demotion. “Hopefully, this means the man can finally sleep on a weekly basis,” one Redditor said.
