GamesCom 2026 Preview For MMORPGs

Thursday begins one of the biggest events on the video game calendar: GamesCom 2026. Running from 26-30 August, Gamescom 2026 is the world’s largest public video game trade fair and consumer convention, held at the Koelnmesse in Cologne, Germany. The festivities kick off with Opening Night Live on August 25. 

The key pillars of the event are:

• Consumer Entertainment Area (Halls 6–10): The central public show floor where hundreds of global publishers and indie studios host hands-on demo stations, esports stages, themed photo installations, and live stage presentations.  
• Opening Night Live (ONL): The main global broadcast event featuring world-premiere trailers, gameplay reveals, hardware demonstrations, and publisher keynote announcements.  
• Business Area (gamescom biz / Halls 2–4): A dedicated B2B trade hub for developers, publishers, investors, media, and technology partners conducting meetings, pitch sessions, and distribution deals.  
• Gamescom Dev (devcom): The co-located game developer conference focusing on game engineering, art, narrative design, game economy balancing, and production pipelines.  
• Community & Culture: Dedicated thematic zones across the Koelnmesse complex, including the Indie Area (Home of Indies), Retro Gaming, Cosplay Village, and the Gamescom Event Arena for live music and esports competitions.

The opening event will be streamed on both YouTube and Twitch. The times broken down by time zone are as follows:

• Pre-Show (30 minutes): 1:30 PM EDT / 12:30 PM CDT / 10:30 AM PDT / 7:30 PM CEST 
• Main Showcase (approx. 2 hours): 2:00 PM EDT / 1:00 PM CDT / 11:00 AM PDT / 8:00 PM CEST  

As The Nosy Gamer concentrates on MMORPGs I'll pick out some points of interest I want to know about. Those issues stretch from previews of upcoming games to events with a business or financial impact on some of the stories I commonly cover. 

Three major games will have a presence on the show floor with demos:

• Final Fantasy XIV (Square Enix – Hall 8): Square Enix features hands-on stations for the upcoming Nintendo Switch 2 edition, dedicated community photo ops (such as the Air-wheeler and Dancing Green installations), and an official in-person community Fan Gathering at the booth.
• Dune: Awakening (Funcom / Level Infinite – Hall 6): Funcom has public hands-on stations showcasing the open-world survival MMO, featuring the first public hands-on playtest for its upcoming console edition.  
• Aion 2 (NCSoft): Headlining NCSoft’s showcase, the upcoming MMORPG is featured during Gamescom Opening Night Live ahead of its Early Access launch.

In addition, NCSoft will be present in the B2B/business area for industry and partner meetings about Guild Wars 3 while NetEase will feature new reveals and Closed Beta information for Sea of Remnants during Gamescom broadcasts.

Square Enix will have a major presence at GamesCom beyond just Final Fantasy XIV.

• Show Floor Booth (Hall 8 | A-21): Square Enix is hosting a large consumer area featuring hands-on stations and community activities.  
• Playable Titles: FINAL FANTASY XIV (including the new Nintendo Switch 2 edition), Final Fantasy VII Remake, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remaster, and Dragon Quest VII Reimagined. 
• Photo Spots & Activities: Themed photo ops for Final Fantasy VII Revelation, FFXIV (Air-wheeler and Dancing Green activities), FFX/X-2, and Dragon Quest's 40th Anniversary. 
• Official Merchandise Store: A dedicated retail area selling Square Enix merchandise and apparel. 
• Showcase Presentations: Square Enix is featured during Gamescom Opening Night Live, with director Naoki Hamaguchi appearing to present a new look at Final Fantasy VII Revelation.  
• Community Events: Square Enix is hosting an official FFXIV Fan Gathering directly at their booth on the evening of Thursday, August 27. 

Another company from East Asia, Pearl Abyss, will also have a major presence at GamesCom. Investors should pay close attention as the news coming out of Cologne will probably lead to a spike in PA share prices next week. At least, the C-Suite probably hopes so.

• Consumer Show Floor (Hall 09.1 | Stand B020–C029): Pearl Abyss partnered with Samsung Electronics to host a large interactive exhibit.  
• Playable Demos: Visitors can play hands-on demos of Crimson Desert running on Samsung's latest display hardware, including the 32-inch Odyssey G8 6K gaming monitor.  
• Stage & Community Events: The booth features live developer presentations, cosplay appearances, and exclusive merchandise giveaways.  
• Gamescom Awards 2026: Crimson Desert is nominated in two major award categories: Best PC Game and Most Epic.  
• Gamescom Dev (Developer Conference): Pearl Abyss technical leads hosted two deep-dive sessions exploring the technology behind Crimson Desert:  
• "How We Filled the Vast Continent of Pywel" (world-building workflows, procedural pipelines, and environmental storytelling).  
• "Scaling Open World Creation in Crimson Desert with an In-House Engine" (technical architecture and rendering systems of the proprietary BlackSpace Engine).  

Some of the other companies I follow do not have a big presence at GamesCom. Fenris Creations studio leadership and production staff (including EVE Online Executive Producer Snorri Árnason) are registered and participating in GamesCom biz and the co-located developer events for industry meetings and networking. But that's about it.

Cloud Imperium Games will have no official presence at GamesCom. The studio's next major event will occur in Manchester in October involving Squadron 42. Players may decide to hold a Bar Citizen, but that is about all that may occur.

Square Enix Layoffs And Restructuring - 2025 Edition

Yesterday IGN broke the news of layoffs occurring at Square Enix' overseas offices and studios, primarily in the United States and United Kingdom.

Square Enix is undergoing mass layoffs today, potentially impacting over 100 individuals, alongside a broader effort to consolidate its publishing organization and focus its development work in Japan.

Via public posts from former employees as well as confirmation from internal sources, IGN has learned that employees in the UK and US are being informed of the layoffs today, with an unknown number of US employees being dismissed by the end of the week, and a possible 137 jobs at risk in the UK. Under UK law, Square Enix must undergo redundancy consultations to see if any jobs can potentially be saved, so the final number in the UK could be smaller. It is not yet clear which teams were impacted by this, or to what extent.

Internally, a slide presentation now publicly available was also shared with employees earlier today, offered a progress report on Square Enix's ongoing "reorganization of overseas organizations", of which this restructuring seems to be a part. Per Square Enix, the strategy has already involved "clos[ing] overseas development studios and shift[ing] toward consolidating development functions in Japan."

I downloaded the document and, since the leadership over at Square Enix loves AI so much, I let Copilot provide a TL,DR of the presentation.

## 🎮 Strategic Vision: “Square Enix Reboots and Awakens”

A 3-year transformation plan focused on long-term growth through four core strategies:

• 1. 🏗️ Enhance Productivity in Digital Entertainment (DE)
  
  
• - Shift from quantity to quality in game development.
• - Consolidation of overseas studios; focus development in Japan.
• - Launch of major titles like *Octopath Traveler 0*, *Dragon Quest VII Reimagined*, and *Killer Inn*.
• - Introduction of off-app payment methods to improve profitability.
• - QA automation via generative AI (joint research with University of Tokyo).
  
  
• 2. 💰 Diversify Earnings by Strengthening Customer Contact
  
  
• - Multi-platform strategy for key IPs (e.g., Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest).
• - Expansion of catalog title sales and merchandising.
• - Cross-media initiatives: anime, live-action, stage adaptations.
• - Global growth of publishing IPs and overseas franchise stores.
• - Group collaboration with TAITO for IP exposure in amusement facilities.
  
  
• 3. 🧱 Build Foundational Stability
  
  
• - Structural reforms in overseas publishing: reduced divisions, leaner teams.
• - Integration of global marketing and data functions under CMO.
• - Annual cost savings of over ¥3 billion expected from reorganization.
  
  
• 4. 📊 Capital Allocation: Growth vs. Shareholder Returns
  
  
• - Strategic investments in AI, data marketing, and M&A.
• - Planned dividend payout of ¥15.5 billion in FY2026/3.
• - Stock split (3-for-1) implemented in October 2025.
• - Shareholder return ratio projected at 91.7%.

One big issue brought up in the various reactions was the plan to move up to 70% of quality assurance work from humans to artificial intelligence. But that was only a small part of the presentation, although worthy of its own slide.

From the presentation

We heard of a reorganization in Japan in which SE moved from Created Business Units to Creative Studios. The below slide fleshes out the progress on the effort.

An organizational chart

The price savings of consolidating 11 divisions down to 4 is expected to be ¥3 billion in the next year, which comes out to be $US19.6 million at today's exchange rate.

Another organizational chart

At the risk of offending some folks in the gaming press, stories about layoffs, especially if AI is involved, are sexy. But the other side of cutting costs is bringing in more revenue. After all, if a good game comes along gamers will concentrate on the next interesting trailer.

The Square Enix game pipeline

I'm not going to lie. I'm used to covering game companies like Pearl Abyss and Cloud Imperium. Those companies are not famous for their ability to release finished games. The graphic above points to 5 new games. That's more than I'm used to seeing in the roadmaps of the games I play.

Square Enix games - 2026

I'm also glad to see that the Japanese game maker realizes it needs to focus on quality games. And yes, I'm aware that for some, the road to quality is to make sequels. The urge for security and financial success is often the path most trodden. That thinking is as true in the video game industry as it is in Hollywood.

Dividend history

But in the end, entertainment is still a business. Unlike the game companies I usually cover, Square Enix actually issues dividend payments. While the latest story is about more layoffs, the entire story is about Square Enix trying to turn its finances around after a few not-so-good bordering on terrible years.

Square Enix Reorganization Removes Naoki Yoshida From Board Of Directors

Over the last 24 hours news reports came out about how Naoki Yoshida, the head of Creative Studio 3 and Producer and Director of Final Fantasy XIV, no longer sits on the company's board of directors. The news actually was posted by Square Enix on 27 February but took a few days to receive widespread notice. Since I'm not breaking the news I get to take my time and dive into two aspects of the news of interest.

The first question is: did Yoshida receive a demotion? One might think so on leadership's reaction to the financial performance of Final Fantasy XVI in September of last year.

In a May 2024 financial report made public today (via Eurogamer), Square Enix president Takashi Kiryu said that Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth and Final Fantasy 16 haven't sold as many copies as the company had hoped. "We released multiple new titles, including major titles such as 'Final Fantasy 16' and 'Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth,' but profits unfortunately did not meet our expectations," Kiryu said.

The financial results were originally shared on May 13, 2024, months before yesterday's PC release of Final Fantasy 16—which, it's safe to assume, will give that particular sales metric a bump. A PC release for Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, meanwhile, still hasn't been officially confirmed. Kiryu also noted that MMO profits were down, but attributed that to "a lull in releases ahead of the launch of the 'Final Fantasy 14: Dawntrail' expansion pack," which was released the following month in June.

One might think a game company executive might fall out of favor after their company's market value falls 30%, or $2 billion, in the three months after a high-profile game launches.

In addition to Final Fantasy XVI, the latest expansion for Final Fantasy XIV, Dawntrail, was not well-received. According to Metacritic, Dawntrail's critics score of 79 and user score of 5.2 only surpassed the scores of the original Final Fantasy XIV which Yoshida personally blew up to begin the game again with A Realm Reborn.

And yet, Yoshida reportedly asked Square Enix to remove him from the board of directors back in 2023. 

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.

Perhaps a look at the 27 February press release is in order. The press released explained the internal reorganization.

In the midst of dramatic changes to both the entertainment business and the Company’s business environment, the Company has decided to introduce a new management structure in accordance to the Square Enix Group's medium-term business plan it devised for fiscal year 2024. This comes as part of the Company’s efforts to establish a framework for the continued execution of various initiatives currently underway. Consequently, from fiscal year 2025, the Company will review its executive structure and form a new Executive Management Committee. The aim of establishing this committee is to expedite the decision-making process and execution of matters related to business transformation and organizational management. 

The Square Enix board of directors is being reduced in size from 8 seats down to four. The four proposed members shareholders will vote on in April are:

• President and Representative Director: Takashi Kiryu 
• Executive Officer, Creative Studio 1 and Creative Studio 2: Yoshinori Kitase
• Executive Officer, Sales & Distribution Center and Customer Experience Design Center: Yu Miyake
• Audit & Supervisory Board Member: Nobuyuki Iwamoto 

The four board members departing are:

• Executive Officer, Publication Business Unit: Katsuyoshi Matsuura
• Executive Officer, General Affairs Division and Human Resources Division: Tsuneto Okuno
• Executive Officer, Creative Studio 4 and Creative Studio 5: Yosuke Saito
• Executive Officer, Creative Studio 3: Naoki Yoshida

However, the four former board members will sit on a new organization, the Executive Management Committee.

The Executive Management Committee will be composed of the President and Representative Director (Chair) along with six other members responsible for operations in such areas as digital entertainment (game development and publishing), publication, and corporate affairs. This committee will be positioned as SQUARE ENIX management’s leadership team, striving to further enhance corporate value and the overall growth of the Square Enix Group. The committee members will drive the formulation and execution of various measures to achieve the Square Enix Group’s medium-term business plan, which will be accomplished through collaboration across internal organizations. 

The Executive Management Committee will consist of:

• Takashi Kiryu - President of Square Enix
• Yosuke Saito - Head of Creative Studios 4 & 5
• Hajime Seki - Chief Legal Officer
• Toshiyuki Hirasawa - Proposed as an executive officer in April 2025
• Katsuyoshi Matsuura - Head of the Publication Business Unit
• Yu Miyake - Head of the Sales & Distribution Center and Customer Experience Design Center
• Naoki Yoshida - Head of Creative Studio 3

Now, just looking at the list something doesn't look right. I would expect the heads of Creative Studios 1 & 2 to also sit on the new committee. Is it possible Hirasawa will take over Creative Studios 1 & 2 with Kitase receiving a promotion? Or maybe Kitase will only work on the mainline Final Fantasy games like Yoshida does the MMORPGs? Don't mind me, that is just my personal speculation.

According to Jack Coleman writing for TheGamer, the Executive Managment Committee will "drive the formulation and execution of various measures to achieve Square Enix Group's medium-term business plan." Those are fine buzzwords. Coleman went on to explain:

The "medium-term business plan" is a new direction for Square, which prioritises "quality over quantity", "bold new IP" and an "aggressive shift" towards releasing its games on several platforms. Square had previously been prioritising new releases on PlayStation 5, a long-time practice for the company. However, Square recently reported that several of its recent triple-A releases have failed to meet sales forecasts, and the decision-makers likely feel that releasing their games on more platforms will boost sales numbers. It's something that Xbox is also experimenting with - porting exclusives to PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch.

The new committee is intended to speed up the company's decision-making, enabling the success of its medium-term plan. It seems that Square isn't willing to lose Yoshida's management expertise, even if the board allows him to step down from his executive position. Yoshida's expertise has been instrumental in many facets of the Final Fantasy series, with him acting as a producer for Final Fantasy 16 despite his ongoing work with Final Fantasy 14.

So any declaration of the demise of Naoki Yoshida's tenure at Square Enix is probably premature. One thing I am looking forward to is how will Final Fantasy XIV's next expansion play out with some of the duties removed from Yoshida's shoulders. Maybe he can even get some sleep.

Yosuke Matsuda To Leave Square Enix

On Friday the Square Enix board of directors filed proposed changes to the leadership of Square Enix. Out will be current President and CEO Yosuke Matsuda, who assumed those positions in 2013. His proposed replacement is current director Takashi Kiryu, who joined Square Enix in June 2020.

Details of the change

According to the document, the board proposed the change to:

Under the rapid change of business environment surrounding the entertainment industry, the proposed change is intended to reshape the management team with the goal of adopting ever evolving technological innovations and maximizing on the creativity of the Company’s group in order to deliver even greater entertainment to its customers around the world. 

Venture Beat summed up some of Matsuda's recent actions.

Matsuda has run the company for a long time, but he also presided over one of the company’s biggest retreats as he sold the company’s Western studios such as Eidos Montreal, Crystal Dynamics Square Enix Montreal to Embracer Group for $300 million. That meant he disposed of properties such as Tomb Raider and then focused on an expansion into blockchain games. Square Enix also released the critically panned Forspoken title.

Back in January, in spite of a crash in cryptocurrency with the FTX meltdown and an accompanying drop in prices for non-fungible tokens, Matsuda issued another letter saying the company would continue to invest in cryptocurrency.

I am pretty sure players of Square Enix games would like to know whether Kiryu will end the move towards blockchain and Web 3.0 games. A company that specializes in video games, DFC Intelligence, isn't sure either.

Matsuda had been a major proponent of NFT and blockchain games.   After a rough 2022 for the category, Matsuda reemphasized the company focus on NFTs in a New Year’s Letter from the President.

What is unclear is whether Square Enix will continue to pursue blockchain development.  Kiryu has only been with the company since 2020 and is a relative unknown.  Our hope is that the company increases it focus on core games for an international audience (what they call MMO and HD games)

About the only piece of information I couldn't find is when the next annual shareholders' meeting is. The various news sources put it in either May or June, although the majority stated June. But what date? Going back through the Square Enix investor relations page, over the last few years the event is usually held during the fourth week of June, usually on a Wednesday or Thursday. The vote to replace Matsuda with Kiryu likely will occur on Thursday, 22 June. 

What other event is occurring on 22 June? The launch of Final Fantasy XVI. Coincidence?

Looking Back At Square Enix Stock Price In 2022

Unlike Pearl Abyss and Cloud Imperium Games, I don't have years of experience looking at any of Square Enix' financial information. But I figure I should close out my look at gaming companies with the maker of my current main MMORPG, Final Fantasy XIV.

The Square Enix investor relation page has very nice functions, including allowing a user to compare the price of its stock against the Nikkei Index on the Tokoyo Stock Exchange. 

Square's stock price throughout 2022

Square Enix Holdings Co. Ltd. finished 2022 approximately where it began the year. The stock opened the year at ¥6100 and opened this year at ¥6130. Trading fell as low as ¥4965 in April and as high as ¥7150 in November. More importantly, the stock outperformed the broader Nikkei average. While Square's stock only increased by 0.5%, the Nikkei Index fell 9.7%.

But what about the U.S. dollar value? Turns out the Wall Street Journal calculates the price based on the dollar.

Square's stock price in USD, via Wall Street Journal

In U.S. dollars, Square's stock price fell 12.9%, from $52 to open the year down to $45.31. Still, a better than average performance than found on U.S. exchanges. For example, information technology stocks in the S&P 500 fell in price an average of 29%. The Nasdaq performed worse, down 33.1% last year.

The performance of Square's stock is a contrast to Pearl Abyss'. While the Japanese studio produced some games that didn't do well, that is a lot better than what our overlords in Anyang managed to do. Add in the good games Square also sold and the financial performance of the two companies, at least their stock prices, are explained.

Square Enix Q1 2022 Financial Results

Square Enix released its quarterly financial results yesterday. Due to the company's financial calendar beginning on April 1st, the results are listed as Q1 2022 and not Q2 2021. Confused? I was at first when I opened the pdf file of the presentation. SE also provided a nice press release to accompany the call. I'll reference both documents during the course of this article.

Making comparisons between FY2021 and FY2022 numbers were made a bit more difficult due to three accounting changes Square Enix implemented beginning on 1 April 2021. They include recognition of some revenue from digital content on third-party platforms like Steam. Prior to 1 April, SE only counted the net amount received from a customer. Going forward, SE will count the entire customer payment as revenue. The other big change is when a microtransaction is counted as revenue. Before 1 April, a player had to convert the purchase into an in-game item to count. Now, it is based on the expected duration of the item used. I guess SE had an issue with players not immediately redeeming codes.

One item that might surprise MMORPG players is Square Enix is projecting a down financial year for FY2022. Except for net sales (see the accounting changes) and capital expenditures, all the numbers on the balance sheets are declining. Yes, the Endwalker expansion for Final Fantasy XIV comes out in November, but in 2020 the first of the Final Fantasy VII Remake games launched 10 days into the fiscal year. Expecting Endwalker to pull in the numbers of the FFVII game is probably unrealistic.

Just to drive home the point about the impact of FFVII Remake on sales last year, year-over-year the number of games sold (downloads and physical discs) declined almost 50% in Q1 2022.

When the subject is MMORPGs, Square Enix runs two games, Final Fantasy XI and Final Fantasy XIV. In the quarter running from April to June, the MMO category brought in $105.3 million to SE. The amount represents a year-over-year increase of 14.9%. The increase is partly due to pre-orders for Endwalker beginning in May. On a live stream in July, FFXIV Director & Producer Naoki Yoshida revealed that pre-orders for the expansion were up over 160% compared to Shadowbringers.

Compared to two years ago, the last full quarter before the release of FFXIV: Shadowbringers, MMO revenue is up 31.8%. Looks like the player hype over Shadowbringers translated to Square Enix' bottom line.

The conventional wisdom concerning game companies and the COVID-19 pandemic is that the lockdown restrictions were good for business. But for Square Enix, the lockdowns resulted in some sections of the company losing money.

The final point is just a statistic I personally found amusing. To give a scale of how big Square Enix is, the company's publication operations in charge of book and other sales made $65.3 million in revenue and had an operating income of $29 million. In 2020, the entire EVE IP (EVE Online and EVE Echoes) posted revenue of $63.2 million.

Investors greeted the news warmly, as today Square Enix stock rose to ¥6410, up 9.95% from the previous day's close of 5830.