Jokes aside, I'm not thrilled with any of the news I'm hearing today. It seems to me that they don't know why people are unhappy with the company. Raising marketing budgets can sometimes help, but how will it help them if they lower development budgets. And don't make me start discussing all the other fiftyeleven things I'm not really getting excited about reading today.
GAF: "Don't work on games for seven years!"
S-E: "Our games will be cheaper to make in the future."
GAF: "They're cutting budgets! S-E is doomed!"
GAF: "Your games are full of prettified ladyboys that no red-blooded American man could ever identify with!"
S-E: "We will focus more on local tastes."
GAF: "Nothing's ever getting localized again!"
GAF: "Remake all the games, for popular platforms!"
S-E: "Our mobile development, which to date has primarily been back-catalogue ports, will be a major ongoing focus due to hardware adoption trends."
GAF: "Oh noes, the Android touched me in my no-no zone :|"
GAF: "Why doesn't everyone get excited about Square's new games, like they did in the '90s when Cloud's face was on Dorito bags and 12-packs of Mountain Dew?"
S-E: "We are increasing advertising budgets."
GAF: "Spend money on something useful instead!"
Not saying that they've found the silver bullet to profiting in AAA without a generation-definer, but goddamn sometimes you guys love or hate ideas based entirely on who proposes them.