There have been a lot of moves of Square Enix since last year, starting with the sale of its western studios Eidos Montreal, Crystal Dynamics and Square Enix Montreal, along with their adventure with NFT and cryptocurrency.

But there is a lot of talk when Square Enix has notified their shareholders that Takashi Kiryu will be replacing Yosuke Matsuda, that is if the shareholders approve the move on Square Enix’s Investor days in June 2023.

Yosuke Matsuda took Square Enix leadership on 2013 and recently, has been a strong proponent that gaming industry should fin opportunities in Crypto-curated blockchains and NFTs, leading on successfully having Square Enix opening their first official NFT marketplace called Meteor (as the calamity of Final Fantasy VII) and being a validator for the blockchain Oasys, the first official blockchain for gaming and Web3 content.

As for Takashi Kiryu, he joined Square Enix in June 2020 as general manager of its corporate planning division and actually, he is no stranger of Web3 as he was a manager of Dentsu Innovation Initiative, an R&D organization focused on the “scouting of new and disruptive technologies”, including blockchain and Web 3.0.

While this changes doesn’t necessarily mean a double bet or a scale back of NFT’s effort by Square Enix, the company justified the move as an answer to the rapid change of business environment surrounding the entertainment industry, and of course, this comes after Luminous Productions, the maker of Forspoken, were absorbed within Square Enix inner studios an Luminous’s management being let go.