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Tough Times, Low Sales Numbers Force Square Enix's Wada To Resign
Square Enix president and CEO Yoichi Wada has stepped down in the wake of a disappointing fiscal year forecast, lower-than expected sales of some of its big hits, and a changing industry environment. A major restructuring is now underway.
Wada's departure still has to be ratified via a shareholder's meeting in June and a subsequent board of director's meeting according to Joystiq, but with a forecast for the current fiscal year ending on March 31 of a 13 billion yen loss (approximately $138 million) – a turnaround from the originally expected 3.5 billion yen profit – the die is cast.
The company's revised forecast is being blamed on the lower-than-expected sales of Tomb Raider, Hitman: Absolution, and Sleeping Dogs in the west, and the subsequent company reorganization that is currently taking place is being put on the books this fiscal year, according to Gamasutra.
How "weak" were the sales of those games? By the end of March, Square Enix estimates that in North America and Europe, Tomb Raider will have sold 3.4 million units, Sleeping Dogs 1.75 million, and Hitman: Absolution 3.6 million. None of those figures includes downloadable sales. Tomb Raider, by the way, has been on shelves less than a month.
No word on exactly what Square Enix was expecting these games to sell.
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