Wada was born on May 28, 1959 in Nagoya, Aichi, Japan. As a teenager and young student, Wada was a fan of Pong, Space Invaders, Donkey Kong and Xevious. When he lived in Warsaw, he also enjoyed games from the Nobunaga's Ambition and Romance of the Three Kingdomscomputer game series. Before joining Square, Wada has stated he was an "uneducated consumer", as he was a "big fan" of Final Fantasy but did not know that the company was responsible for the series. He particularly liked early 3D games, including D and titles from the Myst, Resident Evil and Metal Gear series. While CEO, Wada proactively tried to play as many Western games as possible — for example, ' and ' — and provided comments about these games to Square Enix's staff.
Career
Pre-Square years
As a student, Wada wanted to become the president of a company as a profession, rather than gradually working his way up in a company through his entire career. He set for himself the objective of becoming a president by the age of 40. After receiving a bachelor's degreein law from the University of Tokyo, he went through an apprenticeship in the financial services group and global investment bankNomura Securities in order to build a track record. Starting in 1984, he served in the group as part of the corporate strategy division, the investment banking division, and finally the controller division. He also worked at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan in Warsaw, Poland. In 2000, he decided to join "a company with a 'theme'", and, thinking that one of the themes of the 21st century was "creating society", chose the video game company Square.
Wada joined Square in April 2000. He became an executive director and chief financial officer in June, the representative director and chief operating officer in September, and finally the president and chief executive officer in December. He helped reform the company's management system. When Square merged with Enix, he became the new company's president and representative director. Under his presidency, Square Enix acquired the video game companies Taito, in 2005, and the British video game publisherEidos Interactive, in 2009. Wada also became the president and representative director of Taito following the subsidiary's restructuring in July 2006. Wada stated at the time that consolidation was a "part of plan" since 2000, as he had foreseen "the first phase of a major reformation of the industry" and had concluded that "there was a limit to what could do with the wholly independent business culture worked within". On March 26, 2013, Yoichi Wada announced his resignation as CEO of Square Enix, and that he would be replaced by former company director Yosuke Matsuda. The change was planned to go into effect in June 2013. Square Enix revealed that Wada resigned from his post in May 2013 and in June 2013 took up a new position as Chairman of the Board of Square Enix Co., Ltd. however he did not hold the “right of representation” for the company. On June 16, 2015, Wada left Square Enix after the end of his contractual term.
Other positions
Wada became the chairman of the Computer Entertainment Supplier's Association in May 2006. The aim of the association was to promote the computer entertainment industry through research activities and exhibitions, including the annual Tokyo Game Show. In March 2012, it was announced that he would step down from his position at CESA in May 2012. He was replaced by Namco Bandai's Vice President Shin Unozawa. He had also held the position of Chairman of the Digital Content Use Promotion Conference of the Keidanren and was also a member of the Japanese Brand and Contents Council. In September 2014, Square Enix announced the establishment of Shinra Technologies, an autonomous subsidiary offering cloud-based gaming services. Wada acted as its founder and president. In an interview with GameSpot in March 2015, Wada said the goal of the company was to offer the cloud-based gaming service as a platform with new and exclusive content instead of pre-existing content like other. He also said that their cloud-based gaming service would utilize supercomputers which will allow developers to create games of a higher quality than what is possible for modern consoles and personal computers. On May 11, 2015, Metaps, an application analysis and marketing company, announced that Wada had joined their company as an outside director. On January 6, 2016, Square Enix announced that they would be dissolving Shinra Technologies due to lack of investment.
Views on the industry
''Final Fantasy''
In January 2010, Wada, asked about his opinion on "big-budget, long-in-development" Square Enix games such as Final Fantasy XIII, noted: "hether we are going to continue to internally create this type of game remains to be seen, because I actually feel that the team that was involved with Final Fantasy XIII should next move on to create and generate some 'next generation' forms of play. Internally and externally I feel there's an expectation of Square Enix to offer something new, and I really think that the Final Fantasy team could create something completely different, but at the moment they're strictly catering to the particular audience they have now."
Piracy
Wada has stated that video game piracy greatly damages the video game industry, especially in Japan, with R4 cards for the Nintendo DS. The R4 was banned in Japan after Nintendo, Square Enix and Capcom brought the issue to court in 2009. Wada proposed that the best strategy to combat this was personalized saves and the social community built around gaming so that players understand the value of the product.
Online distribution
In November 2009, Wada stated: "In ten years' time, a lot of what we call 'console games' won't exist". According to him, the main strategy of console manufacturers has switched from hardware to network starting in 2005, with any kind of computer becoming a potential gaming platform. He claimed at the time that sales firms and distributors were in for economic troubles, but “format holders” such as Sony and Microsoft were already prepared. Square Enix increased its production of social and browser games during this period as a result, though Wada, though he stated his restated his commitment to console gaming and the Final Fantasy series in particular.
