Square Enix wants to slim down lineup

President Takashi Kiryu has shared his plans to slim down Square Enix's lineup of titles.

During a financial briefing Q&A last November, which was only put online recently, Kiryu highlighted the "limited diversity" of Square Enix's line-up.

"I want to structure our development function so that we are able to ensure higher quality from each title by slimming down our lineup," he said.

Kiryu felt that Square Enix was "overly reliant" on particular genres and IPs such as Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy, and noted that customers have a diversified taste in genres that needs to be addressed.

Kiryu also said felt Square Enix needed to "strengthen the internal portion of [its] development function" by focusing on making "carefully selected new titles" developed "to a high level of quality."

"Through this approach, we hope to strengthen our internal development capabilities, gain greater development proficiency, and establish a development function that enables us to consistently produce high-quality games, thereby boosting our profitability."

When asked why Square Enix has been unable to slim its line up down until now, Kiryu identified that the publisher "tried to produce hits by developing a wide variety of titles rather than focusing only on certain ones."

"The market is increasingly polarised between blockbuster and indie titles, but I feel that we have developed many titles that fall somewhere in the middle," he said. "I want to make clearer distinctions going forward."

Sign up for the GI Daily here to get the biggest news straight to your inbox