Square Enix of America President and CEO Mike Fischer has left the company after nearly three years, for the position of Vice President of Digital Music and Video for Amazon in Japan. Fischer did not discuss any specific details of the departure, but told Polygon that he left on good terms.
After confirming his departure Square Enix officials said that “any rumors about shutting down North American or US operations are not accurate.” They also said that the current CEO of Square Enix in Europe, Phil Rogers, will take over as president and CEO of Square Enix America and oversee business in both the America and Europe branches of the company.
Fischer took over leadership of Square Enix of America in July 2010 and last year began discussing his plans for for the North American branch. With games coming from Japan and Europe Fischer didn’t want to just duplicate that. Instead he wanted to take more risks with smaller experimental projects like Quantum Conundrum. Fischer didn’t want to spend money on creating studios, instead he wanted a core internal team of producers and engineers to support all the independent studios that Square Enix was publishing for.
Earlier this month Square Enix released its financial results for its fiscal year which ended March 31st, 2013. The results confirmed a net loss of ¥1.37 billion ( around $134 million). The company reminded investors and the press of its costly restructuring plans, which saw the resignation of former Square Enix president Yoichi Wada. The company also partly blamed the competitive console market and the sales of its larger titles Sleeping Dogs, Tomb Raider and Hitman: Absolution falling well short of their original targets.
(via Polygon)