November 26^th, 2001 (12:00am) - SquareSoft has announced that its president and CEO, Hisashi Suzuki, will resign on his own accord following the report of the company’s worst half-fiscal-year loss ever. Current COO Yuichi Wada will replace Suzuki on December 1, but he will remain as the company’s chairman. SquareSoft reported a loss of 13.28 billion yen (about $107 million) for the six fiscal months ended September 30, and it expects a fiscal year loss of 17.70 billion yen (about $143 million), after a profit of 700 million yen a year ago.
Under Wada, SquareSoft said that it will initiate a restructuring of its business plan in the face of a rapidly changing video game market. Much of its losses can be attributed to the less-than-stellar performance of the Final Fantasy film, which grossed a little more than $30 million worldwide, well short of the expected $90 million revenue goal.