When the Square Enix annual report 2019 hit the desks of investors and the screens of curious fans, most people were looking for updates on Final Fantasy VII Remake or maybe some news on Kingdom Hearts III. But if you dug into the dry, corporate numbers of the financial filings, a different kind of headline emerged.
The big one? Yosuke Matsuda’s remuneration.
The long-time President and Representative Director saw his total compensation reach a staggering 205 million yen. For those of us who don't keep a currency converter open at all times, that was roughly $1.85 million USD at the time.
It’s a lot of money. Honestly, in the world of Japanese business, where executive pay is often surprisingly modest compared to the ballooning CEO salaries in the US, this number turned some heads. But was it actually "too much," or was it just the price of keeping a giant like Square Enix afloat during a transitional year?
Breaking Down the Square Enix Annual Report 2019
Let’s be real: 2019 was a weird year for the house that Cloud Strife built. On one hand, you had massive wins. Kingdom Hearts III finally launched after what felt like an eternity, and it sold like crazy. Octopath Traveler proved that there was still a massive, hungry market for "HD-2D" nostalgic RPGs.
But the financials weren't all sunshine.
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According to the Square Enix annual report 2019, net sales actually rose by 8.2% to roughly 271 billion yen. That’s good! However, the operating income—the actual profit from doing business—tanked by over 35%, landing at 24.5 billion yen.
Why the drop? Basically, it costs a fortune to make and market games these days. The report explicitly mentioned that while those big titles drove sales up, the development costs and advertising spend ate the profits for breakfast. There was also a significant "extraordinary loss" of about 3.6 billion yen related to Luminous Productions, the studio that eventually gave us Forspoken.
Where Did the 205 Million Yen Go?
When we talk about Yosuke Matsuda remuneration 205 million, it’s not just a single paycheck he cashed at an ATM. Japanese corporate filings break this down into specific buckets.
- Base Salary: The "guaranteed" part of the job.
- Bonuses: Tied directly to how the company performs.
- Stock Options: Keeping the boss's interests aligned with the shareholders.
For Matsuda, that 205 million yen figure placed him among the higher-tier earners in the Japanese gaming industry, though he still trailed behind some of the western giants like Bobby Kotick (who was pulling in ten times that amount at the time).
It’s worth noting that Square Enix’s board uses a specific formula to calculate these numbers. They look at "consolidated operating income" and "profit attributable to owners of the parent." Since the profit was down in 2019, you might think his pay would be lower. But executive compensation often reflects the previous year's wins or specific milestones hit during the current cycle.
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The Matsuda Legacy: Growth vs. Risk
Matsuda-san was always a bit of a polarizing figure. He’s the guy who famously said Square Enix needed to focus more on "global" audiences, which led to the expansion (and eventually the controversial sale) of Western studios like Crystal Dynamics and Eidos Montréal.
He was also the one who started beating the drum for "games as a service" and, later, blockchain and NFTs. You've probably seen those infamous New Year's letters that made the internet go into a collective meltdown.
But in 2019, he was focused on stabilization. The company was trying to move away from being "just the Final Fantasy company" and into a diversified entertainment powerhouse. The Square Enix annual report 2019 shows a lot of growth in the Publication segment (manga like Fullmetal Alchemist) and the Amusement segment (Japanese arcades), which helped cushion the blow of rising game dev costs.
How it compares to the competition
To put that 205 million yen in perspective, let's look at his peers during that same window.
Nintendo’s legendary Shuntaro Furukawa was reportedly making around 211 million yen around that same era. So, Matsuda was right in the ballpark of his biggest rival. If you look at Sega or Capcom, the numbers generally hover in that 100 million to 300 million yen range.
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It’s a "Goldilocks" zone—not as egregious as American tech CEOs, but certainly enough to buy a very nice house in Minato City.
Why Investors Cared (And Why You Should Too)
Why does it matter what one guy in a suit makes? Because it’s a signal of where a company’s priorities lie.
When a company reports a 35% drop in operating income but still maintains high executive payouts, shareholders start asking questions. In the case of the Square Enix annual report 2019, the justification was largely about long-term strategy. The company was reinvesting. They were building for the future.
The 2019 report was essentially the blueprint for the Final Fantasy VII Remake launch in 2020. They were spending the money then so they could reap the rewards later. Matsuda’s pay was a reflection of the board's confidence that his "aggressive" investment strategy would eventually pay off.
Actionable Takeaways from the 2019 Report
If you’re looking at these old reports to understand how the gaming business works, here’s what you should actually look for:
- Operating Margin is King: Don't just look at "Net Sales." A company can make billions and still be "poor" if their margins are thin. Square Enix in 2019 had an operating margin of about 9.1%, down from 15.2% the year before. That's a huge red flag for efficiency.
- Segment Diversification: Square Enix isn't just games. Their manga and merchandising arms are incredibly profitable. If you're an investor, look at the "Publication" segment—it’s often the hidden MVP of their balance sheet.
- The "Extraordinary Loss" Trap: Always read the footnotes. That 3.6 billion yen loss in 2019 was a precursor to the studio reshuffling that defined Square Enix for the next five years.
The Square Enix annual report 2019 remains a fascinating snapshot of a company at a crossroads. It was the end of the "rebuilding" era and the start of the "high-budget gamble" era. Whether you think Yosuke Matsuda remuneration 205 million was earned or not, there's no denying that his leadership during that year set the stage for everything we see from the company today—for better or worse.
If you really want to understand the current state of the industry, start by looking at where the money went five years ago. Usually, that's where the seeds of today's successes (and failures) were planted.