Square Enix has recently made a significant change to its corporate leadership, and one of the significant changes is that Final Fantasy XIV producer and director Naoki Yoshida (better known as Yoshi-P) is no longer an executive director of the company as of February 2025.
Yoshida initially came on the board of directors for Square Enix in 2018 following the success of Final Fantasy XIV revitalization. Yoshida, though, is listed in the newest corporate restructuring notice released on February 27, 2025, as just an executive officer and not his former role of executive director.
In spite of this alteration, Yoshida is still the director and producer of Final Fantasy XIV, and there is no suggestion that his work on the game will be impacted. The restructuring seems to be aimed at his corporate status within Square Enix and not his creative role.
It is not known whether Yoshida’s ousting was a company decision or a voluntary resignation. Before this, Yoshida had shown disinterest in serving on the board of directors, saying in a 2023 interview with Dutch newspaper NRC that “I don’t want to be on the board, it’s much more fun to just make games.” There have also been reports that Yoshida tried to quit as executive director in the past, but Square Enix turned him down at the time.
With this recent development, it is possible that Yoshida was finally able to retire from the corporate aspect of the company, enabling him to concentrate on game development. Nonetheless, Square Enix has not officially stated whether this was at Yoshida’s behest or was part of the larger reorganization plan.