News / NexusArc

Takashi Kiryu Replaced Yosuke Matsuda as Square Enix President in 2023

The planned leadership change became official in 2023, and Square Enix’s current executive biography continues to list Kiryu as president and representative director.

By NexusArc Staff Published Mar 5, 2023 390 words

Image: Wirtz / Wikimedia Commons — CC BY-SA 3.0.

Current status

Takashi Kiryu assumed the roles of president and representative director at Square Enix and Square Enix Holdings in 2023. The company’s current executive biography continues to list him in those positions, so the change is no longer a proposal.

Square Enix prepared for a leadership change

Square Enix announced that CEO Yosuke Matsuda would step down after leading the company since 2013. The publisher named director Takashi Kiryu as his proposed replacement.

Square Enix's plan to replace CEO Yosuke Matsuda followed years of debate about the publisher's priorities. Players associate the company with Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, Kingdom Hearts, NieR, and a deep RPG catalog. Investors were watching how it balanced blockbuster development, mobile revenue, live-service experiments, and global growth.

Leadership changes at a publisher this large are not only business-page events. They can influence which projects get greenlit, how aggressively a company pursues new technologies, and how much risk it takes with legacy franchises.

Matsuda’s tenure left a complicated legacy

Matsuda’s era included major successes, but it also included controversial strategic bets. Square Enix experimented with live-service projects, blockchain language, Western studio sales, and a shifting approach to global development. Some of those moves looked forward-looking on paper and messy in practice.

For players, the biggest question was simpler: would a new CEO help Square Enix focus on the games people actually wanted? The company’s strongest reputation still comes from premium RPG craft, distinctive worlds, and long-running franchises with loyal audiences.

What players were watching next

A CEO change does not instantly alter a game lineup, because major projects take years. But it can change messaging, budgeting, platform strategy, and how the company reacts to underperforming releases. Fans were watching for signs of whether Square Enix would double down on core franchises, pull back from distractions, or keep chasing experimental revenue models.

The leadership transition also arrived as the broader industry was becoming more cautious. Rising development costs, subscription uncertainty, and platform competition made publisher strategy more visible to players than it had been in the past.

What the leadership change put at stake

Square Enix’s CEO transition mattered because the publisher sits at the center of Japanese RPG history and modern gaming business pressure. The company’s next era would be judged on whether it could turn that legacy into clear, focused releases rather than scattered experiments.