Why Square Enix is inviting indies to explore its vault of intellectual property

Square Enix has a back catalogue of inestimable worth. Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, Tomb Raider and Deus Ex are still in active development, but it owns precious series as old as gaming itself. So why would it unlock those vaults and allow upstart videogame studios to help themselves to its valuables, not least when the company has a long record of shutting down fan-made projects that infringe on its copyrights?

[Kyosuke_Sanada]

A potentially new Fear Effect, GOD YES!!!!!!!!

[ifritAlkhemyst]

Probably won't sell. I've mentioned the game before, nobody ever seems to have ever heard of it. Makes me sad.

[e-p-ayeaH]

Doesnt matter if its good (not in a niche kinda way) people will buy it

[The Great Melon]

I hope they open up Japanese IPs sometime in the future to outsiders. There are a ton of franchises that they haven't touched in years that could use some love.

[ZeroX9876]

chrono trigger, mana series, Romancing saga, parasite eve, I could continue on and on!

all those franchises either stopped or got a flop released and never got to be heard of afterwards.

I'm still waiting for KH3 and FFXV (FFXIII versus before). If those two doesn't live up to their expectations, I don't know what might happen to the company...

[TheEvilWithin]

I miss all those franchises. I would love to see Parasite Eve make a come back either a Reboot or an actual third game. (Don't really count third birthday for PSP)

[Rzep]

Cause SE are a bunch of talentless burned out hacks that created games, that's right multiple game around "characters" like Lightning that possess the charisma of a rather dull looking pebble.

They do make pretty good PC ports, when they can be bothered to release something on PC.

[ExitToExisT]

I am probably the #1 fan of Kane&Lynch and i'm also a game developer. With the necessary assets and sources i am positive that i can develop an actual AAA Kane&Lynch game.

But the whole concept doesn't make any sense. If Square Enix is really this desperate they should just ask for a funding to develop a sequel to their low revenue IP's , lets say K&L3.

[Rzep]

If only they could get it through their thick heads that a game does not need to cost a 100 million to be worth of release.

Make another short K&L romp like Dog Days, price it accoardingly as in not $60, profit.

[ExitToExisT]

Yeah you are right. But still a $60 AAA Kane & Lynch can be developed with a very small amount of budget.
IO Interactive already has a next-gen engine on their hand and with Hitman:Absolution they have a solid shooting gameplay up and ready.

For example i developed this game with a budget of $500.
https://www.youtube.com/wat...
If i had $5000, it would have been a lot better though.

[Galletto3]

Man the whole series had so much potential on paper, but when everything was said and done, it was pretty subpar (just finished playing them both for $10 at Gamestop).

I did like how they used the camera in the second one though. Like I said, a lot of missed potential at least in the SP.

[Skate-AK]

Parasite Eve! Pretty please?

[Chard]

Gee, if only there was a group of dedicated Chrono fans that wanted to resurrect the beloved franchise that Square no longer use.