The series of activities in the games business process—procure funding, prepare the development environment, develop games, distribute and sell the finished games—has previously been possible only for major publishers with large-scale funding. However, the shift to 'open source, low-cost game development tools,' 'fundraising through crowd funding' and 'direct sales via download' have created an ecosystem in which large-scale funding is no longer necessary. " Matsuda mentions the rise of independent developers, who he says are "appearing one after another." You can read the full Square Enix annual report here. Or, if you'd like to revisit some of Square Enix's big shakers from 2014, you can always read the IGN review of Tomb Raider Definitive Edition, Final Fantasy XIV, or Hitman GO. Wesley Copeland is a freelance news writer, but you probably already guessed that. For more obvious statements, you should probably follow him on Twitter.