Square Enix recently explained how the company will be focusing on the “global market” because of the “graying demographics” in Japan. The country currently has one of the highest proportions of elderly citizens in the world.
The news comes from a financial report given to investors which claims that it would be "critical for our business that we produce hit titles that speak to the global market.” This goes on to remark that “for our group to better focus on developing titles for the global market in this changing environment, we need to concentrate our limited resources on the development of strong and robust titles.”
"We need to enhance our presence in the global market by quickly establishing an organizational structure that enables us to consistently roll out high quality content produced through selective and focused resource allocation which requires the revamping of our title and studio portfolio,” the document points out. “Achieving major growth in the game industry is difficult now for companies that compete primarily in the Japanese market, given its graying demographics.”
There apparently is not enough demand on the domestic market to maintain the business model established by Square Enix. "In other words, the Japanese market is no longer sufficient for achieving a level of earnings that enables us to recoup our development investment and generate a profit and we therefore need to approach our development efforts based on the assumption that we have to succeed in the global market,” the report bluntly states.
The company also remains fully committed to the blockchain. Square Enix considers "blockchain entertainment" to be a “key part of our strategy for future growth.” According to the document, the company has "identified AI, the cloud, and blockchain as focus investment areas.”