Square Enix boss worried company is too insular

Square Enix honcho Yoichi Wada has allegedly issued an ultimatum to staff: unless the company stops making non-mainstream games, job cuts will follow.

According to Kotaku’s ‘company insiders’, the order came during a ‘fierce meeting over a month ago’ regarding the company’s recently-released 2007 financial year results, in which it was revealed that Square Enix’s profits had dropped 20 per cent and that it had only sold 3.7 million games in the US in FY2007, compared to 6.1 million in FY2006.

Following the financial year results, Wada said that the company "needed to go beyond traditional Square Enix", hinting at a wider portfolio of titles to come in the future. The company already publishes several casual games in Japan developed by external parties, but so far none have been published in the West.