INTERVIEW: YOICHI WADA, PHIL ROGERS, MIKE FISCHER, SQUARE ENIX
MIKE FISCHER, PRESIDENT & CEO, SQUARE ENIX AMERICA
YOICHI WADA, PRESIDENT & CEO, SQUARE ENIX
PHIL ROGERS, PRESIDENT & CEO, SQUARE ENIX EUROPE
Gl bal first
AS X FACTOR contestants capably demonstrate on a weekly basis, there is no difference of ambition between the gifted and the bewildered. Brilliant icons-in-waiting share the same self-belief as tone- deaf fantasists.
The game business is of little difference to Simon Cowell’s talent- contest-meets-Victorian-freak- show. The audience has the ultimate decision on whether a company is star material or being booted off stage. So if, by chance, you’re reading this copy of MCVa few years after it was published, let us know how this one was judged: Square Enix wants to build a top three publishing empire upon which the sun never sets.
www.mcvuk.com
Forget the usual Q&A with one publisher boss. Rob Crossley meets all three Square Enix chiefs to explore how a once Japan-centric firm is threatening to take over the world
It aims to build brand new, globally-focused, successful franchises, leveraging an extensive international audience using business channels in Europe, the US, Japan, and now China too. “There are many companies out there who focus their business on America and Europe, and there are some companies which focus on Japan – nobody but us covers all,” Square Enix Group CEO Yoichi Wada tells MCVwith a degree of pride.
Before April last year he wouldn’t have made such a claim. That was the month when the Japanese RPG specialist sealed a £84m acquisition of Britsoft publisher Eidos, and became a transcontinental enterprise overnight.
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The industry’s foundation is transforming, but Square Enix is not necessarily shifting away from consoles to social gaming.
Yoichi Wada, Square Enix
Square Enix Europe, as it was rechristened, held on to its CEO Phil Rogers during the takeover. Sat with Wada for our meeting, he tells MCVthat the company’s new global agenda is not merely leveraging Eastern properties in Europe and the US – it’s about returning fire with Western games that can break into the Japanese market. “I think today, [releasing Square
Enix Europe’s games in Japan] hasn’t been as much a focus as it will be in the future,” Rogers says. “Across the whole industry, only a limited number of titles have actually succeeded in both the West and in Japan. It’s true that Eidos’ market was a Western audience, but now we’re evolving as a company – one that shares
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