Square Enix President Takashi Kiryu outlined the company's vision in his annual New Year's Letter, expressing his intention to aggressively apply artificial intelligence (AI) in both its content development and publishing functions. Read on to know more.
Square Enix President Believes AI Represents Business Opportunities for Company
Square Enix's Goals Involving "Aggressive" Use of AI
The Square Enix President provided insights into the company's approach in 2024, detailing efforts to optimize resource allocation, strengthen internal development capabilities, and enhance global collaboration. Kiryu emphasized the importance of organizational structures fostering closer collaboration between content development and publishing functions.
He revealed plans to rigorously apply AI and cutting-edge technologies to create new content and explore business opportunities. In his letter, Kiryu explained that Square Enix aims to leverage AI to enhance development productivity and marketing efforts in the short term. For the long term, the company plans to use AI to create new forms of content.
Kiryu shared that they intend to be "aggressive" in applying AI and other technologies to both the company's content development and publishing functions.
Kiryu further wrote in his letter:
"In the short term, our goal will be to enhance our development productivity and achieve greater sophistication in our marketing efforts. In the longer term, we hope to leverage those technologies to create new forms of content for consumers, as we believe that technological innovation represents business opportunities."
Square Enix President Says AI Has Potential to Reshape Processes Including Programming
Kiryu acknowledged the longstanding debate on AI and highlighted the significant impact of generative AI, such as with programs like ChatGPT. He expressed his belief that AI, particularly generative AI, has the potential to "reshape creative processes, including programming." This led to Square Enix adopting its stance toward the application of such technology.
Kiryu emphasized his sentiments, stating: "Artificial intelligence (AI) and its potential implications had for some time largely been subjects of academic debate. However, the introduction of ChatGPT, which allows anyone to easily produce writing or translations or to engage in text-based dialogue, sparked the rapid spread of generative AIs.
Its release made it apparent that the applicability of generative AI was by no means limited to text, and the subsequent months saw a quick succession of launches of new services and content that expanded generative AI into a variety of domains with close ties to digital entertainment, including images, video, and music.
I believe that generative AI has the potential not only to reshape what we create, but also to fundamentally change the processes by which we create, including programming."
Square Enix Ushers in New Corporate Strategy "Grand Design" for Its Future
Changes to Resource Allocations Across Entire Development Chains Already In Place
Reflecting on 2023, Kiryu noted the global shifts brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic and rising geopolitical risks. Square Enix's core business, its Digital Entertainment sector, witnessed notable advancements with the introduction of emerging technologies like extended reality (XR) and the rapid spread of generative AI into various domains, according to Kiryu.
The company's president stated that they are working towards accelerating ongoing internal development efforts to strengthen the company's in-house capabilities for creating content. He further wrote in his letter, "We have begun optimizing our resource allocation across our entire development chain in order to accelerate an effort that was already underway to strengthen our internal development capabilities. We are also expanding knowledge sharing with the goal of standardizing our processes and enhancing our efficiency."
The company is not only focused on current projects but is also laying the groundwork for upcoming developments. Kiryu likewise revealed that Square Enix is evaluating the titles already in development to "ensure they meet high standards."
Diversification and New Business Domains Underway
Beyond the Digital Entertainment sector, Kiryu highlighted the Publication and Amusement businesses and their potential synergies and contribution to the overall growth of Square Enix. Kiryu wrote, "On the publishing side, which consists of our sales and marketing functions, we are working to enable greater global collaboration and to promote the shift to digital."
The company is set to focus on new business domains, including blockchain entertainment/Web 3.0, AI, and the cloud, with ongoing efforts to modify organizational structures and optimize resource allocations.
Kiryu wrote in his letter:
"In addition to our focus investment fields, we will also endeavor to create mechanisms that enable us to diversify our earnings sources. These initiatives will be the most important determinants of our Group’s ability to adapt flexibly to a changing business environment and to continue to create high-quality content."
Kiryu concluded his letter by expressing Square Enix's commitment to achieving further growth in 2024. The company is set to enact a new corporate strategy termed the "Grand Design" that aims to drive initiatives, adapt to changing business environments, and create an environment that encourages individuality and creativity among employees.
"We will articulate our new corporate strategy in the form of a Grand Design and devote ourselves to executing each of our initiatives. Never fearing change and always maintaining a challenger’s mindset, we will work together as one to drive our businesses forward."
Source:
SQUARE ENIX HOLDINGS: A New Year's Letter from the President
Square Enix’s president says it will be ‘aggressive in applying’ AI
