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Square Enix's New Plan: Spend way less money, work on smartphones, dev regional games

M

Mpl90

Two copies sold? That's not a bomb guys, stop trolling!!!
Father_Brain said:
Out of curiosity, which "games people want to play" are you referring to? I'm not sure there's an easy answer to that question anymore, given the increasing divergence of the Western and Japanese markets.
Click to expand...

FUC*ING MUSHROOM KINGDOM HEARTS.

I mean, a cross RPG with both Nintendo and Square characters, both companies working on it. Who wouldn't like it? :D
 
R

Relaxed Muscle

Member
Seeing the rest of the slides made me realize how bad this is..

Oh God, SE is finally dead...this is too much....I can't....

fainting-lady-ovhxm0.gif
 
G

Glass Rebel

Member
lunchwithyuzo said:
Co-developed by Arte Piazza, until recently they were mainly just a planning/support company and not capable of full development on their own. Matrix doesn't list any of the DQ remakes on their site except DQV PS2 but if you dig through the credits you'll find them (at least in DQIV DS iirc). I assumed it might be the same for DQVII, but maybe someone who's actually beaten the game can confirm?
Click to expand...

I wasn't aware of this. The official site still cites "ARMOR PROJECT/BIRD STUDIO/ARTEPIAZZA/SQUARE ENIX" as with the DS remakes so it's possible that Matrix was involved as well.
 
L

lunchwithyuzo

Banned
Celine said:
You are a gentleman and a scholar.

Recently I dreamt that Level-5 would asks to ex-Quintent developers (Hashimoto, Miyazaki, Koshiro) to develop a new 2D action RPG for an eventual Guild03.
Click to expand...
When they hired Matsuno I was similarly hoping for something along the lines of a Quest revival, but I'm happy to at least have gotten Crimson Shroud out of it.

Quintent makes sense though, L5 really owes a lot to their games I think.
 
E

ebil

Member
Am I mistaken or they somehow magically almost quadrupled FF14's operating target in the process? That's absolutely insane, even for SE.

All in all, not very encouraging news at all.
 
M

Mael

Member
Toski said:
What was going to fund the rebuild of FFXIV? As far as I can see, Hitman: Absolution and the Tomb Raider reboot didn't hit projections, but they still were relevant and put S-E's name on games in the West. If it weren't for Eidos, S-E would be irrelevant in the West (IMO). Eidos maybe expensive, but whats more expensive is the failed development and rebuild of FFXIV, the constant delays to Versus, and letting Kingdom Hearts whither and die. I think if S-E didn't have Eidos, the situation would be much worse.
Click to expand...

If they didn't have Eidos they would have more funds that went to Eidos,
they may have been more irrelevant but their solvability would have been better which could be used to create an opportunity.
Then again if they were smart enough to not let Eidos be a money pit it like it has always been they would have avoided the whole FNC and XIV fiasco :/
 
M

Magicpaint

Member
lunchwithyuzo said:
Isn't Matrix involved with DQVII 3DS? They were with the very similar DQV PS2, as well as the DS remake trilogy iirc.

I like Matrix but I don't think moving to Silicon Studio for BDFF was a bad decision at all. And Matrix was by far the most prolific of the 3 you mentioned, all Jupiter did for SE on DS was TWEWY and all h.a.n.d. did was Chocobo games.
Click to expand...

h.a.n.d. did the KH games for DS too.
 
L

lunchwithyuzo

Banned
Glass Rebel said:
I wasn't aware of this. The official site still cites "ARMOR PROJECT/BIRD STUDIO/ARTEPIAZZA/SQUARE ENIX" as with the DS remakes so it's possible that Matrix was involved as well.
Click to expand...
Cattle Call worked on them too iirc, as well as on Opoona with Arte Piazza, so they're another possibility for ninja coding DQVII.

I agree with your sentiment though, I wouldn't mind seeing Matrix hired to do say a full 3D FFV remake on 3DS/iOS. Matrix on FF remakes and Silicon on BDFF sequels could be a good dual approach on 3DS.
 
B

Burt

Member
Now that they're backed into a corner, maybe we can start seeing them producing some guaranteed money makers.

FF7 HD remake, FF Tactics 2 (a real sequel), Secret of Mana 3 for iOS, XBLA, and PSN, and moar Ivalice.

Just make me CEO now. I'll save this stupid company.
 
T

That1BlackGuy

Member
Not surprised at all, they have to work smart from here on out if they want to stay in the game and compete globally. Dedicating resources to the mobile space may see higher quality titles and lesser product cost(s) at that. As far as their core game development, stick to what you know will sale and profit.

I will be very interested to see Square Enix after all of their current projects are released.
 
D

Dark Octave

Banned
Not like it matters anymore. Final Fantasy has been dead to be this whole generation anyway. What's a little more forever gonna hurt.
 
T

Toski

Member
Mael said:
If they didn't have Eidos they would have more funds that went to Eidos,
they may have been more irrelevant but their solvability would have been better which could be used to create an opportunity.
Then again if they were smart enough to not let Eidos be a money pit it like it has always been they would have avoided the whole FNC and XIV fiasco :/
Click to expand...

You're seeing the situation for what it should've been, I'm seeing it for what it is. I don't think the money S-E would've saved on not purchasing Eidos would've gone to better decisions, I think it would be squandered on other frivolities. We both agree that better management would've solved this problem though.
 
M

Morfeo

The Chuck Norris of Peace
Is it naive of me to think that some sprite-based rpg's for the 3DS could do really well and not cost a ton to develop? I mean, it doesnt even have to be new games, just port some Live a Live, Seiken Densetsu 3, Bahamot Lagoon and other lost gems for us. On second though, that might be better for us than them, but whatever, DO IT Square Enix!
 
Caelestis

Caelestis

Member
This new plan doesn't sound very encouraging at all. If you can't do well on consoles at least try handhelds instead of going mobile. Can't wait for more iOS ports and games that no one asked for.
 
F

Father_Brain

Banned
mentalfloss said:
Didn't even read the part on them giving up on next-gen tech.

Ouch indeed.
Click to expand...

Reminder that Gibson was both live-tweeting and live-translating a Japanese briefing, so there's a lot of nuance and pertinent detail that could be lost in attempting to get that across in less than 140 characters.

We'll have to wait for the full transcript, but yeah, it doesn't sound good.
 
K

kuroshiki

Member
Morfeo said:
Is it naive of me to think that some sprite-based rpg's for the 3DS could do really well and not cost a ton to develop? I mean, it doesnt even have to be new games, just port some Live a Live, Seiken Densetsu 3, Bahamot Lagoon and other lost gems for us. On second though, that might be better for us and them, but whatever, DO IT Square Enix!
Click to expand...

LOL

Not gonna happen.
 
M

Magicpaint

Member
lunchwithyuzo said:
You're right, for some reason I was only thinking stuff that hasn't made a 3DS appearance yet. I wonder if that 3DS Chocobo Racing will ever be revived, maybe as a smartphone game instead?
Click to expand...

Yeah most likely smartphone if it ever gets revived. I honestly don't see anything more for 3DS from them besides DQ and I guess the BD sequel.
 
I

iLLmaticV3

Member
Honestly, at this point, just release Final Fantasy Versus XIII and Kingdom Hearts 3 and I don't care what happens to the company next. Used to be my favourite developer of all-time before this gen started and they basically fucked up any chance of attaining former glory, making the fans happy, and obvious profits from the millions of people anticipating those games. 10/10 mad.
 
M

Mael

Member
Toski said:
You're seeing the situation for what it should've been, I'm seeing it for what it is. I don't think the money S-E would've saved on not purchasing Eidos would've gone to better decisions, I think it would be squandered on other frivolities. We both agree that better management would've solved this problem though.
Click to expand...

The way I see it, Eidos has not proven to be an asset more than a liability.
It's on par with the rest of the company IMO.
It hasn't provided a disaster on the level of FFXIV I'll grant that.
It's really just average.
Eidos "saved" nothing for SE.
It pissed away money on projects that didn't bring money worth the investment that's for sure.
That's probably how Eidos tried to sell the company to SE, so that's probably why they expected more from them.
We agree that the management of the company was stupidly incompetent, that can't be stressed enough.
 
D

Dark Octave

Banned
And by the way, when SquareEnix says that they will "work on smartphones", they mean iPhone.

As does most everybody else who has ever said that.
 
L

lunchwithyuzo

Banned
Burt said:
Secret of Mana 3 for iOS, XBLA, and PSN
Click to expand...
More remakes along the lines of Tactics Ogre: Wheel of Fate would be amazing. It's a shame that game was limited to PSP though, I think it'd have done so much better in the west if ported around (XBLA, PSN, 3DS, iOS, etc).


Magicpaint said:
Yeah most likely smartphone if it ever gets revived. I honestly don't see anything more for 3DS from them besides DQ and I guess the BD sequel.
Click to expand...
Seems like it, yeah. Though that's also probably better support than Vita/PS4/Durango/Wii U can expect out of non-Eidos/Taito SE.
 
G

Glass Rebel

Member
lunchwithyuzo said:
Cattle Call worked on them too iirc, as well as on Opoona with Arte Piazza, so they're another possibility for ninja coding DQVII.

I agree with your sentiment though, I wouldn't mind seeing Matrix hired to do say a full 3D FFV remake on 3DS/iOS. Matrix on FF remakes and Silicon on BDFF sequels could be a good dual approach on 3DS.
Click to expand...

Ah Cattle Call, that's another name I haven't heard in a while.

I really wonder if they're even going to bother with FFV and VI remakes. The DQVII and DQM remakes get my hopes up somewhat and Final Fantasy III DS sold over a million. Who knows.
 
I

ironcreed

Banned
So sad to see actual game development get inflated with money that can't buy innovation, and then they run to swim in the shallow end of the pool when their bloated budgets and ridiculous expectations could not keep them afloat.
 
N

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
mentalfloss said:
Didn't even read the part on them giving up on next-gen tech.

Ouch indeed.
Click to expand...

Father_Brain said:
Reminder that Gibson was both live-tweeting and live-translating a Japanese briefing, so there's a lot of nuance and pertinent detail that could be lost in attempting to get that across in less than 140 characters.

We'll have to wait for the full transcript, but yeah, it doesn't sound good.
Click to expand...

Luminous is meant to power everything from smartphone games to PS4 titles, so I'm not sure they're intending to drop that.

I'd imagine it's more along the lines of not bothering to have three separate engines in the West for no apparent reason and/or no longer making game specific engines like they have been doing this and previous generations in Japan.
 
IrishNinja

IrishNinja

Member
Glass Rebel said:
The first point is obviously the most important. Their output on the HD side has been abysmal this gen since they were caught with their pants down and weren't able to manage for shit. Final Fantasy XIV: ARR and Lightning Returns better be successes for them and pray to god Versus isn't coming out at least on PS3.

I don't like the sound of "target smart devices". Like, at all. That market alone won't be able to sustain a company of the size of Square-Enix but it seems they're betting farm on it.

The third point is basically a kick in the balls for any JRPG fan in the West I fear. Not like they're doing many interesting JRPGs anyway.
Click to expand...

almost verbatim my take, too. if Lightning Returns does FF XIII-2 #'s (feels like a safe bet, doesn't it?) that feels like just another litmus for them, too.

literally the only positive thing was them pointing out how poor their management has been - games take forever, go way over budget & still feel rushed - but the conclusion from that might as well be (for me) to invest in health joints like Konami did.

best i can hope for is revisiting the well with more classic FF ports for 3DS/Vita (if they remember the latter), but this very much sounds like a company acknowledging their better days are behind them.

kuroshiki said:
Can't wait for that mobile bubble to burst.
Click to expand...

part of me often feels this way when i see stuff like this too, but then the industry's current state seems so broken that i'm worried what'd be left to exploit. as long as most pubs/devs seek new mediums for growth - rather than say, reasonable sales expectations, additional revenue streams on current platforms, etc - i think we'll just keep seeing this sort've thing.
 
C

Cheebo

Banned
A port of ff7 for iOS is probably the most likely way we will see ff7. Since they probably will have ff6 later this year on iOS.
 
C

chaostrophy

Member
I don't get why they think every game they make for an HD console needs the massive budget and production values of something like FFXIII. They should make more games with asset detail similar to Bravely Default that a wide variety of platforms could handle, and put them out on everything. Smartphones, handhelds, consoles, even PC...just tweak the interface and the output resolution for the different platforms.
 
K

kswiston

Member
Looking at their earnings report, I'm not exactly seeing the evidence that smart phone games are going to be their saviour. Sure, smartphone titles probably have a much better return on investment, but they won't be able to scale that up to a level that they can support their company at its current size. Hell, EA has had to lay off some of its mobile staff after sluggish sales following their flooding of the marketplace.

Eventually people will get over the novelty of having IAP versions of Final Fantasy titles on their iPhone or Android device, and they will be right back where they started. Especially since S-E doesn't seem to be too concerned with the actual quality of their mobile offerings.


Also, from the investment report, are they actually raising their expectation for FF14 based on beta reception?
 
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