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"Square Enix running at its prime" – Former exec says the Final Fantasy dev's critical investors are "closely aligned" with what fans want, including Clair Obscur: Expedition 33-level experimentation

News
By Ashley Bardhan published 10 December 2025

"High quality, but with smaller dev teams"

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Final Fantasy 16 protagonist Clive uses magic in closeup screenshot
(Image credit: Square Enix)
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Square Enix's irritated investors are really just looking out for the Final Fantasy developer, says former Square Enix Holdings director of business and current Genvid CEO Jacob Navok.

A December 8 press release from major shareholder 3D Investment Partners might have originally worried you that the opposite was true; the investment group issued a 112-slide presentation asking other shareholders to "share with us your frank views regarding the management issues at SQEX HD." But Navok thinks investors just want Square Enix to get back up and "running at its prime."

"They want the price to go up," Navok observes about 3D Investment Partners in a series of Twitter posts. "They need to unlock value. They are actually closely aligned with what many of the fans want – which is a Square Enix running at its prime.

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  • A screenshot from Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, showing a man named Verso covered in dirt and blood, looking into the camera. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33's Ben Starr worries the video game industry will learn the wrong lessons from its success
  • Wyll in Baldur's Gate 3 Baldur's Gate 3 lead says gaming executives shouldn't rely on a "dysfunctional chain" to understand game quality

"I think the company can get there with the right management philosophy."

One thing people do not realize about Square Enix is that the actual float of the stock (the number of freely available shares) is quite small. 3DIP bought up many of those shares over the last year in its run to get nearly 15% of the company and becomes its second-largest…December 9, 2025

Navok explains in another post that investors need Square Enix "to get back to sales that are profitable. This means high quality, but with smaller dev teams and smaller dev cycles, not thinking that they're going to compete with the CoDs of the world but with the Clair Obscurs of the world, and really innovate on gameplay."

Based on what 3D Investment Partners outlines in its presentation epic, Navok seems to be right about its motivations. The shareholder complains of Square Enix's "significant deterioration in earning power" over the past three years, and demands the company "once again – surprise us, move us, and ignite that passion we once felt."

"For gamers across the globe," 3D Investment Partners reasons. Well, if it's for gamers across the globe…

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Former Square Enix exec says that's nothing new as major investor calls out the Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest creator for high development costs and lackluster sales.

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Ashley Bardhan
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Ashley is a Senior Writer at GamesRadar+. She's been a staff writer at Kotaku and Inverse, too, and she's written freelance pieces about horror and women in games for sites like Rolling Stone, Vulture, IGN, and Polygon. When she's not covering gaming news, she's usually working on expanding her doll collection while watching Saw movies one through 11.

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