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[Thick Thighs Save Lives]

Last week, Square Enix announced changes to its management structure and published its updated list of company executives. Among other personnel changes, Final Fantasy XIV director and producer Naoki Yoshida (known by fans as Yoshi-P) seems to have been removed from Square Enix’s board of directors.

Yoshida became an executive officer at Square Enix in 2015, followed by a promotion to executive director in 2018. The official Square Enix company overview still lists Yoshida as a director at the time of writing, but their latest announcement from February 27, 2025, lists him only as an executive officer, suggesting a demotion from the position.

However, there is a fair chance that Yoshida may have stepped down of his own volition. Although he landed the promotion thanks to his huge contribution to Final Fantasy XIV’s success, he didn’t particularly like the role. In 2023, he reportedly told Dutch publication NRC that “I don’t want to be on the board, it’s much more fun to just make games.” (via Dot Esports) Apparently, Yoshida even tried to resign from the role of executive director back then, but Square Enix did not allow it. In this case, his new change in rank may actually mean he finally got his way, although it’s all conjecture at this point.

Square Enix’s Naoki Yoshida no longer on company’s board of directors - AUTOMATON WEST

Final Fantasy 14 producer and director Yoshida Naoki is no longer listed as an executive director of Square Enix as of February 27.

automaton-media.com

 

[near]

He convinced them to relieve him of the position with the bomba that was FF16.

 

[ShaiKhulud1989]

The guy is clearly overworked and underslept. So there is hardly any drama.

He convinced them to relieve him of the position with the bomba that was FF16.

His FF XIV is literally only game that is consistently printing money for SE and I bet he chose to work more on it and not push corporate papers.

 

[Oberstein]

No surprises. He's not even wearing a suit. Disrespectful.

All kidding aside, he did an incredible job getting FFXIV back on track.

 

[LectureMaster]

I don’t want to be on the board, it’s much more fun to just make games.

Yeah, let him dedicate all the talents and passion to creative activities, I think it's for the best.

 

[Astray]

My guess is he resigned to focus more on making games? Or is there something deeper there?

Square Enix’s Naoki Yoshida no longer on company’s board of directors - AUTOMATON WEST

Final Fantasy 14 producer and director Yoshida Naoki is no longer listed as an executive director of Square Enix as of February 27.

automaton-media.com

 

[Radical Dreamer]

He's overrated as fuck, FF16 was a big disappointment.

 

[Edellus]

Good for him if that's what he wanted.

I like him from what I've heard from live letters and interviews. Seems like a down to earth guy that tries to be as honest as possible and listens to the community (within a company like We, that is).

I thoroughly enjoyed FFXIV and FFXVI. I will checkout everything he and his team does. If he has more time and focus for making games now, the better for all of us then.

 

[Valonquar]

It cut too much into his jewelry shopping time.

 

[Gonzito]

Good, he is overrated. FF16 was such a slog man, boring and uninspired. I wish I could get back these hours I spend on it

 

[Punished Miku]

We can only hope he stays away from directing anything. He'd be fine as a producer or overall logistics person. Clearly took a fair bit of organization and management skills to turn around ARR. But he is creatively bankrupt. Ripping off WoW, GOT, DBZ, LotR. Guy doesn't have a creative bone in his body. He should be head of HR and logistics.

How you put out a FF game that doesn't even have elemental weakness is literally baffling. I literally cannot understand what he thinks about game design. 1 weapon. Damage sponges left and right. Pacing right out of Everquest.

 

[FewRope]

We can only hope he stays away from directing anything. He'd be fine as a producer or overall logistics person. Clearly took a fair bit of organization and management skills to turn around ARR. But he is creatively bankrupt. Ripping off WoW, GOT, DBZ, LotR. Guy doesn't have a creative bone in his body. He should be head of HR and logistics.

How you put out a FF game that doesn't even have elemental weakness is literally baffling. I literally cannot understand what he thinks about game design. 1 weapon. Damage sponges left and right. Pacing right out of Everquest.

He wasnt the director of XVI, he was a producer like in FF XIV. The guy who wrote Heavensward was the director

 

[Punished Miku]

He wasnt the director of XVI, he was a producer like in FF XIV. The guy who wrote Heavensward was the director

Fair point, but producer is a bit more hands on in games than in movies. He clearly was the face of the game, and had some input in its design. But its a totally accurate correction, so point taken. I think he'd be good in plotting broad things like team management, development milestones and timelines. But I haven't seen anything he's involved in creatively impress. His main skill is getting things out on time and on budget. That's useful, so he should help other people with that.

 

[Tiago Rodrigues]

People talking about FFXVI as if Square Enix is even thinking about that game lmao.

FXIV made more money than any game Square Enix has ever done...that's what matters. He's probably more focused on making games (which he wants to) than anything else.

 

[Oberstein]

On the subject of money, Square-Enix doesn't say much anymore: they no longer give sales per episode.

A few days after the release of FFXVI, they announced 3 million and then there's absolutely no information on the actual numbers. 6, 8, 9 million? We have no idea.

SE recently declared that the license had sold 195 million units, but that's very vague.

 

[Thick Thighs Save Lives]

On the subject of money, Square-Enix doesn't say much anymore: they no longer give sales per episode.

A few days after the release of FFXVI, they announced 3 million and then there's absolutely no information on the actual numbers. 6, 8, 9 million? We have no idea.

SE recently declared that the license had sold 195 million units, but that's very vague.

We also get sales updates during anniversary celebrations or other major FF announcements, but yeah, they seem to be few and far between as of late...

 

[mèx]

Good, better keep game devs in actual devs positions where they can create stuff they are passionate about.

 

[Loomy]

The guy just wants to make games lol

 

[Ainem Enamas]

Demonic world loves when you remove soulful art

 

[Madflavor]

Guy has earned his rest and the freedom to move on to another project.

Gonna be honest about FFXIV. I played through ARR to ShB in early 2021, and was there when EW dropped. It was one of the best gaming experiences of my life. The story was incredible and it helped get me through a difficult time. But as I see it, the story of FFXIV is done. After 6.0 ended, they returned right back to the status quo, allergic to any meaningful changes with characters or the state of the world, and once Dawntrail dropped it's become clear that CBU3 is on autopilot with this game. They don't seem to have any good ideas on what to do next, the job system is becoming oversaturated where I'm sure balancing is a nightmare, and the actual game itself is stuck doing the same 10 year formula with many of it's systems. EW was the conclusion to 10 years of storytelling and build up. But now most of the major plot threads are wrapped up. Where to you go from here? And on an aging game no less.

If Yoshi-P is stepping down so he can work on a new game, I think it's the right move. Gonna be interesting years for Square Enix, but FFXIV is their main cash cow, but I think it's clear that this is the beginning of the end for FFXIV. I don't think that's dooming, it's just obvious. Not saying the game will outright die, but it's on it's way to having a fraction of it's playerbase.

 

[Killjoy-NL]

He's overrated as fuck, FF16 was a big disappointment.

On the other hand, he managed to take one of the biggest flops in gaming history and turn it around to the point of going head-to-head and even surpassing WoW, one of the biggest successes in gaming history.

 

[MagiusNecros]

The guy just wants to make games lol

Nah just spreadsheets. Backlash towards FF16 and Dawntrail IMO is what led to this. He is simultaneously the savior and destroyer of FF14. Endwalker as far as I am concerned was the last expansion. Dawntrail is very bad. He has admitted the game is boring and keeps it that way.

 

[rubik's dude]

Idk what people were expecting with XVI when they say it was disappointing. It was a competent game in a series with a decade-long streak of shit releases for its mainline titles: XIII, XIV 1.0, XV.

That's like going to a restaurant known for serving sandwiches with shit in it, and then being disappointed when they give you a peanut butter sandwich without jelly, just because other places serve steak burgers. I'm just happy they've moved on from shit sandwiches; the jelly and steak burgers can come later.

Y'alls expectations weren't in line given the circumstances.

 

[Go_Ly_Dow]

On the other hand, he managed to take one of the biggest flops in gaming history and turn it around to the point of going head-to-head and even surpassing WoW, one of the biggest successes in gaming history.

 

[Go_Ly_Dow]

They trimmed the top level down to just be a handful of directors now.

Yoshida is still in the executive team.

 

[FewRope]

Guy has earned his rest and the freedom to move on to another project.

Gonna be honest about FFXIV. I played through ARR to ShB in early 2021, and was there when EW dropped. It was one of the best gaming experiences of my life. The story was incredible and it helped get me through a difficult time. But as I see it, the story of FFXIV is done. After 6.0 ended, they returned right back to the status quo, allergic to any meaningful changes with characters or the state of the world, and once Dawntrail dropped it's become clear that CBU3 is on autopilot with this game. They don't seem to have any good ideas on what to do next, the job system is becoming oversaturated where I'm sure balancing is a nightmare, and the actual game itself is stuck doing the same 10 year formula with many of it's systems. EW was the conclusion to 10 years of storytelling and build up. But now most of the major plot threads are wrapped up. Where to you go from here? And on an aging game no less.

If Yoshi-P is stepping down so he can work on a new game, I think it's the right move. Gonna be interesting years for Square Enix, but FFXIV is their main cash cow, but I think it's clear that this is the beginning of the end for FFXIV. I don't think that's dooming, it's just obvious. Not saying the game will outright die, but it's on it's way to having a fraction of it's playerbase.

Endwalker was such an estellar conclusion that I did not have any desire of playing Dawntrail, I started it, got to the first city and dropped it just there. It's literally impossible to continue playing FF XIV after Endwalker, it is the ending of the story in every aspect of it

 

[Loomy]

Nah just spreadsheets. Backlash towards FF16 and Dawntrail IMO is what led to this. He is simultaneously the savior and destroyer of FF14. Endwalker as far as I am concerned was the last expansion. Dawntrail is very bad. He has admitted the game is boring and keeps it that way.

Nothing wrong with tracking work in spreadsheet. I'm sure they use other things as well. But the process that got us Dawntrail also got us Heavensward, Shadowbringers, and Endwalker.

Dawntrail was always going to be ARR levels of average both because it came on the heels of an epic story ending and split focus from the team.

And no, this isn't a result of FF16 performance. That was on Square limiting it to 1 platform, not the dev team. It's not an exaggeration to say that. the man save Square Enix.

Yoship P has been trying to quit the executive director role for a while now.

 

[Madflavor]

Endwalker was such an estellar conclusion that I did not have any desire of playing Dawntrail, I started it, got to the first city and dropped it just there. It's literally impossible to continue playing FF XIV after Endwalker, it is the ending of the story in every aspect of it

That's pretty much how I feel. I think they would have needed to do something substantial to show that 7.0 was truly the beginning of a new chapter. A time skip where you play as a new character, a catastrophic event that heavily alters the world state, or something like that.

 

[MagiusNecros]

Dawntrail was always going to be ARR levels of average both because it came on the heels of an epic story ending and split focus from the team.

Big disagree. Changing up their writers and writing a very forgettable story with forgettable one note characters compared to every previous expansion is unexcusable. The excuse it's a new story arc doesn't work when they had so much to build off from and the new writers don't know their own lore when several problems present in Dawntrail's narrative could have been solved with solutions that were already present in previous expansions and in the game's world building which they are all so eager to throw away. But hey they made Lyse look amazing as a character in comparison to Taco Cat so there is that.

It's clear to me the expansion's budget went to pretty but ultimately one note setpieces and did the bare minimum everywhere else. Likely because all the money made from 14 went to fund other projects instead of 14. Stupid.

Dawntrail was meant to set the expectation for the next 10 years of FF14 and if this is what they have to show for it...then it may very well be on Maintenance mode. And every patch cycle gets longer and longer and we are getting less content despite the longer patch cycles.

As far as the evolution of the game itself. Yoshida won't allow it to evolve unless it conforms to his spreadsheet formula with very little deviation. Which is why over the years the game has largely been the same ever since 3.0.

I can stomach the stagnant gameplay if the story is good in a story driven game...but it isn't in Dawntrail. And that's the issue.

And I'd imagine if the game has issues maybe the guy in charge of 14 should do something about it instead of vague promises that if you wait 3 years everything will be better in 8.x. Been down this road. It's a bunch of baloney.

I think the fact that SE overestimated how many would buy FF16 on one platform along with a mixed reception to Dawntrail just made it easier for Yoshida to step down to a lower position. Now if he gets more creative control and FF14 improves I'll be super happy. But if it stays the same or gets worse then it is what it is.

 

[rkofan87]

i just want a pro patch for ff16 dam it

 

[Unlimax]

On the other hand, he managed to take one of the biggest flops in gaming history and turn it around to the point of going head-to-head and even surpassing WoW, one of the biggest successes in gaming history.

I personally think that any talented South Korean MMO dev can have the ability to do a much better job at reviving FF14 than the complex state that it was in 1.0 .. like imagine if these devs implemented Blade & Soul style into FF14 and how insanely good the game will turn out instead of being a sluggish tab targeting game and how epic raid bosses will turn out, Youshi-P is extremely lucky to fill that criteria and become the center of attention for it because any talented dev dreams to capitalize on the Final Fantasy brand when it comes to making an MMO, however the guy missed the mark completely on what the fans ask for in a single player FF game and doubled down by downplaying the beloved turn-based system that the fans used to.

 

[MagiusNecros]

I personally think that any talented South Korean MMO dev can have the ability to do a much better job at reviving FF14 than the complex state that it was in 1.0 .. like imagine if these devs implemented Blade & Soul style into FF14 and how insanely good the game will turn out instead of being a sluggish tab targeting game and how epic raid bosses will turn out, Youshi-P is extremely lucky to fill that criteria and become the center of attention for it because anyone talented dev dreams to capitalize on the Final Fantasy brand when it comes to making an MMO, however the guy missed the mark completely on what the fans ask for in a single player FF game and doubled down by downplaying the beloved turn-based system that the fans used to.

I won't lie if they persay made a FF MMO-Lite and it was just Granblue Relink and they kept adding fights for months I'd buy it and love it.

 

[Kumomeme]

He convinced them to relieve him of the position with the bomba that was FF16.

16?

if anything else, it probably and obviously due to FF14 Dawntrail. fans been critisizing him for not playing his own game due to the expansion poor writing.

 

[Zephyranthes]

Dawntrail was always going to be ARR levels of average both because it came on the heels of an epic story ending and split focus from the team.

Just because Yoshi-P gave that excuse does not mean that it is true, and Dawntrail having lower stakes did not mean that it had to be boring. I was totally on board with the idea of an "ultimate summer vacation" expansion that was sold to us. Having that vacation consist mostly of banal agricultural busy work and having the plot revolve almost exclusively around one of the least believable and compelling characters I've ever seen in a JRPG is not a product of Dawntrail's position in the overall FFXIV narrative....it is a product of bad writing.

 

[Kumomeme]

they just has corporate restructure thats all. probably doesnt mean anything much.

 

[Pejo]

Probably one of the most overrated game directors currently active in game development. All of his ideas are just "take this other game and apply the Final Fantasy name to it, add chocobos and memberberries".

S-E seems to be having an identity crisis where they can no longer innovate and become trend setters. Now they just are 5~ years late to old trends that (mostly) disappoint from a revenue standpoint. Hopefully they promote a risk taker and somebody with original ideas, or at least somebody that allows room for that to happen.

 

[Perfo]

The only man inside S-E I trust handling anything FF related.

 

[Ozzie666]

FFXIV died for me at End walker as well. But to save that game is pretty career defining. It was such a mess pre ARR.

Everquest had a moon too, YoshiP said hold my beer look what I can do with a moon.

 

[Felessan]

I personally think that any talented South Korean MMO dev can have the ability to do a much better job at reviving FF14 than the complex state that it was in 1.0 ..

They can't even make a good game, not to say turn bad one into good one
It's hardly any "talent" to spit out a game after game no one plays, and for sure ff14 arr success is a pipe dream for them.
Just because you put some shitty "innovative" bells and whistles doesn't make game interesting and engaging to play. All those no target MMO rot in the trash bin, while two most successfull still follow old and proven

 

[riko]

I had some what written off SQEX because of how.. bankrupt FF16 felt. DMC combat with a shoddy GoT story bolted on but worse. The game felt like work to get through.

But FF7 Rebirth proves they can still make killer games so who knows.

 

[BacklashWave534]

A lot of people here saying how awful FFXVI is but for some reason have forgotten the travesty that was FFXV. The game was much worse in every respect. Also, it would be weird if Yoshi-P was demoted while that tool, Tetsuya Nomura still works there. I'm guessing it was a personal choice to step down.

 

[Felessan]

But FF7 Rebirth proves they can still make killer games so who knows.

Bloated work of a junior game designer?

FF16 has some issues and divisive points and so is FF7R2