Because of Japan’s rapidly greying population, video game publisher Square Enix is shifting its focus to titles that can be enjoyed by players all over the world.
Within the pages of Square Enix’s annual report for 2022, which was published just last week, president Yosuke Matsuda emphasized how important it is for the company to release games that are successful with audiences all over the world. According to him, “greying demographics” in Japan have made it increasingly difficult to compete successfully in the country’s primary market.
The term “greying demographics” refers to the increasing proportion of elderly people in Japan’s population. According to a report that was published in September by The Japan Times, Japan is currently the country with the highest population of people aged 65 and older.
There are 19.37 million people living in this country, and people aged 75 and older make up 15 percent of the total population. It is estimated that 36.27 million people, or 29.1 percent of the total population, are adults aged 65 and older.
He went on to say that courting the Japanese market was “no longer sufficient” if the publisher wishes for any of its titles to generate a profit. This was said in furtherance of his previous statement.
Matsuda wrote, “It is essential for our company that we produce hit titles that speak to the global market, which offers greater scale in terms of both customers and sales volumes.” This is because the global market offers greater potential for growth. “It is imperative that we prioritize the creation of robust and powerful titles with the limited resources at our disposal.”
Matsuda’s strategy for making this happen involves modifying both the title and studio portfolios of Square Enix. He went on to say that the publishing company would “quickly establish an organizational structure that enables us to consistently roll out high-quality content produced through selective and focused resource allocation.”
Matsuda continued by saying that the revamp was one of the reasons that Square decided to sell off its Western development studios earlier this year. Those studios included Eidos Montreal, Square Enix Montreal, and Crystal Dynamics.
In order to “achieve further growth through the optimal allocation of our resources and the creation of a more robust product pipeline,” the three studios were sold to Embracer for the price of $300 million.
Products based on the blockchain and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) will be developed as part of Square’s product pipeline, in addition to the numerous upcoming Final Fantasy games. According to a report from the previous week, Matsuda stated that the developer would be “aggressive” in including the technology as a source of revenue for the company.
Instead of limiting ourselves to only blockchain games, we intend to pursue a wide range of new types of entertainment under the banner of “blockchain entertainment.” “At the moment, we are positioning the blockchain domain as our most important focus.
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