Naoki Yoshida would prefer not to sit on the board at Square Enix, but the studio won’t let him step down from the role.
Naoki Yoshida, also known as Yoshi-P, seemingly does a little bit of everything over at Square Enix. Producing and designing video games in the Final Fantasy series, Yoshida has also been on Square’s board of directors since 2018, a role he landed following the success of his contributions to Final Fantasy 14. Five years later, Yoshida has admitted it’s a role he doesn’t particularly want.
Yoshida revealed to Dutch publication NRC that he has even tried to step down from the board, but Square won’t let him. “I recently tried to quit that work, but the company didn’t agree with it. I don’t want to be on the board, it’s much more fun to just make games,” Yoshida told NRC. Clearly, Square wants to utilize the director’s expertise in as many areas as possible.
Yoshida goes on to say he doesn’t understand why fellow developers want to be on the studio’s board. “They probably just want to make a ton of money, but you can also just do that as a game developer.” Yoshida wears a lot of hats at Square, and it seems he’d be happy with the money he makes from his current roles without the added pressure of being on the board.
As for how exactly Square is forcing Yoshida to remain on its board wasn’t explained by the video game designer. Perhaps remaining on the board is now tied to continuing his work elsewhere. You’d think Yoshida has more sway considering the work he’s done for Square, though. Not only on Final Fantasy 14, but also his work as a producer on Final Fantasy 16 which launched today.
Related: Will Final Fantasy 16 come to Xbox Series X?
Perhaps Square will reconsider letting Yoshida leave the board once Final Fantasy 16 has released and the dust has settled. If you plan on buying and booting up the game today, there will be a day one patch waiting for you, but it’s only a little one.
