Final Fantasy 14's Yoshi-P quietly removed from Square Enix's board after years of wanting out: "It's much more fun to just make games"

Update: Square Enix confirms to 12DOVE that "Yoshida-san will resign after General Shareholders’ Meeting and the Board of Directors’ Meeting, both of which are scheduled for May." Until then, he will continue to serve on the board of directors. After, he'll maintain his position as an executive officer, and he'll also join the executive management committee starting April 1.

Original Story:
Final Fantasy 14 director Naoki Yoshida, also known fondly as Yoshi-P, seems to have been removed from Square Enix's board of directors, on which he's served since 2018, and demoted to executive officer.

But don't cry for him – Yoshida has been wanting out of the board almost as soon as he'd been let in. Recently spotted by Automaton, and initially noticed by Dot Esports, Yoshida told the Dutch newspaper NRC in 2023 that he'd "recently tried to quit that work, but the company didn’t agree with it."

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

Now, following structural changes Square Enix plans to implement in April, Yoshida finally gets to run wild… or, with as much uninhibition as one can muster while still wearing a pressed suit.

In a February 27 press release, Square Enix explains that its proposed changes – which could see its board of directors culled from eight members to four – arrive "in the midst of dramatic changes to both the entertainment business and the Company’s business environment." But its new executive management committee would operate under representative director Takashi Kiryu anyway, and it includes Yoshida in the executive officer position he held prior to his board appointment.

12DOVE has reached out to Square Enix for comment. At this point, though, it seems like Square Enix is more just juggling its suite of officials rather than seriously upsetting its status quo. In any case, it all seems a lot more boring than designing another marshmallowy Moogle – Yoshi-P is right about that.

Final Fantasy creator says the original JRPG's programmer was "like a god" to him: "I still strongly feel that the core program itself is the 'life' of a game."