Say what? This has to be the most short-sighted thing I've read in quite a while. Apparently earnings for the 2007 fiscal year weren't up to par, so Square-Enix's president, Yoichi Wada, issued an ultimatum to the development staff - if they develop any non-mainstream games (read: Final Fantasy or Dragon Quest), layoffs will quickly follow.
What kind of policy is this for a gaming company? I love Square-Enix's games, mostly because I'm an RPG fan and they tend to be very high quality products. I also don't think they should ever stop making the games they're known for - the Final Fantasys and the Dragon Quests. But you know what? Games such as The World Ends With You - a completely new and critically praised IP - have their place too. Gamers need something new and have a tendency to be very stand-offish when things change too drastically with their favorite franchises, so why not create new IPs?
The next Final Fantasy-type franchise could come from one of those projects, the corporate hot-shots don't know that it won't, the gamers in general don't know that it won't. While The World Ends With You seems to me to be more of a sleeper hit, like Vagrant Story, its still a critically acclaimed game for the hottest selling game system in the world. It will be a sad day when companies decide to stick strictly to mainstream, big-money games and ignore newer, more innovative ideas. Its not very heartening to see Square-Enix take the first steps in that direction.
Thursday, May 29, 2008
No More Non-Mainstream Games from Square-Enix?
Blogged at 11:27 AM
Topics: annoyances, culture, ds, final fantasy, gaming, japan, politics, rpg
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
1 comment:
This is just further proof to me that the company has gone to the pits ever since the merger. Granted, they're still making good games, but not nearly like they used to. They're milking old titles for all its worth
(FFVII for example has spawned several hellish games that destroy the story...As much as I wanted to love DoC and Crisis Core, I am now forced to admit that X-play was right about that 2 out of 5)
The original Kingdom Hearts was an incredible game and what happened to it? The second one lost the feel of quality and *gasp* several pieces of crap were spawned from the title. Again, milking it for all its worth.
Of course they're losing money, they have to expect this when they only produce one quality game every four years.
/rant off
Post a Comment