270°

Square Enix 'struggling to achieve expected return on console investment'

CVG: Square Enix has swung to a loss for the first nine months of the financial year as it struggles to make a return on its investment in the 'challenging' console market.

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computerandvideogames.com
miyamoto4514d ago (Edited 4514d ago )

Ha! That's what you get for selling your soul! That will learn ya.

i guess its time to unleash Cloud and Sepiroth to make an HD appearance ;-) instead of Lightning, right Sony?

KingKelloggTheWH4514d ago

Do you really want current Square to make a FF7 remake?

Just look at the FF7 compilation stuff,they keep making cloud all emo despite him only being like that for a small portion of the game.

adorie4514d ago

Bring back Sakaghuchi. Problem solved. I bet the CEO of SE would have to grovel for that to happen.

user39158004514d ago (Edited 4514d ago )

The series turn out as expected crap, FF its dead to me now, I was so dissapointed with FFxIII and star ocean, that now I really dont care what they make. I missed Sakaguchi, good thing he made a few good title exclusive to 360.

miyamoto4514d ago

To be honest it really pains me to see this happen to Japanese giants like SE, & Capcom, they gave in to the pressure of the western money instead of staying true to what they really are.

They could have tried to fight with honor or even die with honor.

https://www.youtube.com/wat...

Army_of_Darkness4514d ago (Edited 4514d ago )

Personally, I truly think that if SE stayed exclusive with sony's ps3, they would still be making high good,quality RPG's instead of pushing multiplatform projects and rushing them out the door for a quick profit...
If you noticed SE's background in game development, you can see that when they put all their efforts into a game on one console at a time, it becomes a great success!
Now that I think about it, it appears that they can't handle multiplatform projects without jeopardizing their creativity.

iChii4513d ago

I agree. And why does everyone want a FF7 remake? Why can't it be FF8? I enjoyed FF8 as much, if not more than FF7.

+ Show (2) more repliesLast reply 4513d ago
Godmars2904514d ago

No. that's what you get for focusing on the wrong thing, messing up royally, then continuing along the exact same path while saying you didn't mess up in the first place. Lying your @$$ off instead of owning up to your mistakes.

3-4-54514d ago

I agree. It's stupid really. Why not just own up to their mistakes. From there they can continue growing, but not until they admit they were and are wrong.

Blank4514d ago

As cool a FF7 remake would be I think they still need much more than that to redeem themselves but for me a good step forward is FIRE WADA! That is how I feel...

Ranma14514d ago (Edited 4514d ago )

FF15 will be an FPS game confirmed.

SE just DOESNT get the message !!!!

To SE, less sales and returns mean westernise and dumb down games more because there not westernised or dumb down enough.

+ Show (1) more replyLast reply 4513d ago
DivineAssault 4514d ago

Keep shoving lightning down peoples throats & thats what happens.. Go back to your roots & start fresh because whats going on now isnt working

TheModernKamikaze4514d ago

Maybe if you give or listen to what your fans want?

kratos1234514d ago

Naaah man people always want more lightning. You know why? Because SE says so.
But I have the feeling if final fantasy 14 fails they will have a major problem. But the good thing about that is that wada maybe fired, damn I dislike that guy

TheModernKamikaze4514d ago

It must be hard for you fans out there, that get disappointed of Square Enix.

kratos1234514d ago

i will be honest man.
I am very disappointed with SE this gen nothing they have published on the consoles is worth my time or it is pure $heit. I just don't get how you go from making great rpg's and listening to your fan feedback to what they have become to day. But i do love all the eidos content they have been publishing.
I have been playing tales of graces F this past week and man that game is soo much fun.
I don't know sometimes it's better to keep your game concepts simple. graces f just has this amazing combat system and an ok story plus a lot of content. As a gamer that's all i am asking for

medziarz4514d ago (Edited 4514d ago )

I think S-E decided that they need to go in an opposite direction to that their fans want them to go.

The reason?

Obviously S-E stumbled out of the gate and failed this generation: FF13 and FF14. The former turned out to be an overwhelming task development-wise and was further hampered along the way by the betrayal of Sony (going multi-platform). The latter was very low quality, rushed and released prematurely.

The result was that fans wanted S-E to admit failure, put the above games behind them, and quickly move on and go back to making successful games that followed the classic formula.

But S-E chose a different option. For them it was more important to fix FF13 and FF14 in order to maintain to integrity of the Final Fantasy list of main-series numbered games. Abandoning 13 and 14 would result in the compromise of the FF Legacy with one game a huge disappointment and story unfinished (13), and the other a complete failure (14). The line of generally successful FF games would be broken.

This historic perspective was more important to them than the immediate support of their fans. That's why, instead of making games their vocal audience wanted, they decided to fix FF13 by making a sequel with features previously missing like exploration and then develop another game that I predict will be at last a competent RPG with a good balance between story, exploration and action - Final-ly rehabilitating the FF13 project and making it more or less worthy of being on the numbered FF list. Similar with 14: do it again, from scratch, so it achieves a level of decency and deserves the place on that list.

maniacmayhem4513d ago

Betrayal? Of Sony? Why do people always hold Square ONLY when a franchise jumps ship. You do realize FF started on Nintendo, should they be held accountable for their betrayal to them?

"The latter was very low quality, rushed and released prematurely."

You must be joking, say what you want about FF13 but you cannot truly believe that it was a low quality game or even rushed. And released prematurely, I mean how do you come to that conclusion?

BlackWolf4514d ago

Well, if you don't give people what they want, what do you expect to happen? That a unicorn pukes rainbows?
SE has it's a shell of it's former glory...

TheLyonKing4514d ago

you mean there is a rumour that versus is a ps4 exclusive and that would be a stupid thing to do considering the amount of sales on a new console vs this gen sales + amount of time it has been in development

adorie4514d ago (Edited 4514d ago )

Yet, a console with an established install base didn't even warm up to SE this entire generation?
Even with multiple exclusives that never made it on the competing platform(few did) that seemed like a better fit.

BoNeSaW234514d ago (Edited 4514d ago )

I think it would be stupid to saturate consumers with 3 more Final Fantasy titles at the end of this console generation. They still have 2 confimed for release on PS3, Lightning Returns and FFIV:Realm Reborn. I don't think either are gonna do well, with all the Loathing Square is getting from their fans.

It would be a great way for Square to move on.
Introduce Versus as FFXV for PS4, drop the Fabula Nova Crystallis Lore out of the story and try to get back some of the fans with a Engaging Story, Gameplay and a World you want to Explore.

4514d ago Replies(1)
adorie4514d ago

Ok. What if Versus 13 is FF15 and what we saw in that brilliant tech demo displaying their new engine, was a glimpse of FF16? I'd like that to be the scenario.

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40°

Find or Be Found: Making Burglary Horrifying • VGMM

Find or be Found puts players in the roles of desperate thieves robbing haunted houses, with one player infiltrating the building while their partner guides them remotely through cameras and a radio. The twist: you're not just avoiding security systems, but supernatural monsters that want you dead

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290°

The Real Enemy of Gaming Isn’t DEI. It’s the CEO

From Horse Armor to Mass Layoffs: The Price of Greed in Gaming. Inside the decades-long war on game workers and the players who defend them.

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rushdownradio.net
jambola6d ago

maybe a real enemy is people who use terms like "the real enemy"
there can be more than 1 bad thing, t's not like a kids show with 1 big bad

senorfartcushion4d ago

This is very much a “dummy who volunteers themselves to the middle” comment.

The real enemy is a common phrase, people use it all the time.

Calm down.

jambola4d ago

i'm very calm
you seem very upset however

Notellin4d ago

You don't seem calm at all. Don't take this so seriously, you seem desperate responding to others defending your opinion that lacks any value or critical thought.

jambola4d ago

stop projecting
i'm not desperately dong anything, i'm tapping at keys on my keyboard bud

PapaBop4d ago

It's not like kids show with one bad guy? I present to you.. Bobby Kotick

ABizzel14d ago (Edited 4d ago )

DEI was never the problem and it was an ignorant take to begin with.

DEI is why games like Kena Bridge of Spirits, South of Midnight, and Ghost of Tsushima exist.

DEI is why we have a huge resurgence in Japanese, Chineses, and Korean developers producing games like Stellar Blade, Black Myth, and why Nintendo & Sony exist.

DEI is why more and more games have HUGE accessibility options with both Sony and MS fully behind this.

DEI was never a bad thing, the entire purpose of DEI is representation of all people, genders, disabilities, etc…

The problem was people used DEI as a default derogatory term to describe what they believed was forced representation, which allowed colorist, racist, sexist, misogynist, homophobic, and xenophobic fools to run away with the negative DEI narrative.

jambola3d ago

you don't get to decide other people's motivations
sorry to break it to you

ABizzel12d ago (Edited 2d ago )

To each their own, however, nothing you said invalidates why some people take offense to DEI incorrectly.

+ Show (1) more replyLast reply 2d ago
Sciurus_vulgaris6d ago

Executives seem to often have an obsession with perpetual revenue growth. There is always a finite amount of consumers for a product regardless of growth. Additionally, over investment is another serious issue in gaming.

Killer2020UK4d ago

The fact that they also rarely have any real expertise in game development compounds things. They'll look at what's been successful elsewhere, lack the knowledge to properly understand why they have been successful and then force a team to 'reproduce' their badly interpreted idea of that success.

We see it so often with sequels to games that were successful too. The team are left well alone, they have a break through hit and all of sudden the money men descend on the IP and completely railroad the dev team's ideas. Usually winds up being 'make the same game but MORE'

LoveSpuds4d ago

This is true throughout all of the corporate and public sector organisations to be honest. CEO's generally move amongst the corporate world without any need to have experience of a particular industry, they simply need to rely on their senior leadership credentials. A CEO of a retail giant will just as easily transition to a CEO role in the energy sector for example.

Not defending CEOs here to be clear, I think it's a huge part of the reason the western world is so fucked up. CEOs don't need to care about the sector they work in, in fact it's better if they don't care if they want to screw everyone to make profits.

GhostScholar4d ago

Companies don’t hire executives to break even. If the goal is breaking even then why start the company in the first place.

Soy4d ago

That's understood; it's getting record profits and expecting to always beat those record profits, and seeing anything less as a total failure. Then they lay people off and raise prices to reach those record profit levels again, just to sate shareholders. It's setting expectations way too high just to spike share prices, then inevitably falling short. It's feeling entitled to being more successful than everyone else. It's the CEOs doing all this to boost their own bonuses.

ABizzel14d ago

Growth benefits the company’s profits and therefore the company’s stock if publicly traded, which pleases the shareholders making them more and more rich, which is why Growth is always at the forefront of the vast majority of any publicly traded company.

More growth = More Money and the people at the top want all the money they can get. I can’t really blame them anyone would love to see their profits go from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands, to multi-millions it’s almost like a gambling addiction.

But it also goes to show someone how morals can go out the window for a lot of these people, and how amazing some CEOs are when they catch this early and provide a balance solution that takes complete care of their employees across the board while keeping the business sustainable IE: Insomniac Games ALWAYS on the best places to work list. The rest of the industry could learn.

jambola6d ago

honestly, the "real" enemy of gaming, is ourselves
if nobody bought horse armor, shitty dlc would have died almost overnight
if we stood firm and nobody bought games from companies that were bad with layoffs, it would be solved
we're the idiots supporting awful business practices, we are the ones enouraging it

TiredGamer5d ago

I think the reality that we don't want to convince ourselves of is that without the rise of "horse armor" and DLC, game budgets would have essentially stagnated (smaller teams/smaller games), or game prices would have risen much more dramatically than they have. There was an incessant drive for bigger worlds, infinite detail, and hundreds of hours of "gameplay" over the last two decades, that while perhaps a natural evolution of things, needed a suitable funding stream to accomplish.

HyperMoused4d ago

What...CEOs make tens of millions and that doesnt include SLT etc etc...we now have multiple editions of games, in game currency, MT's, battle passes.....and what do we get..worse game than what was coming out 20 years ago....dont drink the cool aid, its this nickel and dime crap that is absolutely leading us to gaming destruction.

senorfartcushion4d ago

This is the worst possible answer to this conundrum. Blaming the masses is blaming the only people who are constantly “told” to buy.

Consumers are the only ones not to blame here. People make their own choices all the time. Disney movies are bombing and DEInis being blamed. Has that been enough to put Disney out of business? No and it never will.

Christopher4d ago

Disagree. Businesses are able to do what they do because people are bad consumers and don't think critically about purchases. Disney got away with doing shit stuff for years and it's just the last year where people got tired of it. It's not like it didn't work for 5 years or so for Disney to do the things they've done. They'll just move onto another way to get people to see movies and it will be just as bad but more profitable until people wake up and realize it.

TiredGamer4d ago

Consumerism drives business behavior. It's not so much "blaming" as it is observing behavior. The point I'm making is that the direction that games have gone are driven by the spending. Consumers are spending on DLC and they are driving the expectation of more glitz and padded out (lengthier) games. If they continue to pay, they will continue to drive that direction until a threshold is reached that forces a change in behavior.

senorfartcushion4d ago

Corporate advertising is the most powerful force on the planet.

This is N4G for god sake, every day there are arguments between people who are Team Xbox and Team PlayStation because they’ve been convinced that having an identity built on paying money to Sony and Microsoft matters more than having one as individual gamers who can play whatever they want.

And THEN we get to the corporate advertising part: to play whatever you want is to sink MORE into the advertising pits, making it so that you can more than one specific product.

jambola4d ago

ah you're right
they were told to buy it, it's clearly impossible to avoid that
if enough people stopped supporting, it would stop
disney not stopping would only be because enough people didn't stop

+ Show (1) more replyLast reply 4d ago
victorMaje4d ago

Agreed. I’ve been saying for years, announce you won’t be buying the upcoming game because of the practices of the previous game, then you only have to stick to your guns once, see how quickly things change for the better.

We have to unite in what we shouldn’t purchase.

jambola4d ago

just imagine a world, fifa came out worse, nobody buys the next one until they see proof it's better and stick to it
or games being forced online for single player and nobody buys it
things would change so fast

HyperMoused4d ago

Just like scooby doo, you have shown us the real monsters are us

+ Show (1) more replyLast reply 4d ago
Inverno5d ago

Greed and greedy people have and always will be the main issue for everything wrong in the world. Everything is a product to be exploited for monetary gain. Even when there are things that could help progress us along for the sake of making our lives easier that thing must be exploited for monetary gains. Anything that tells you otherwise is propaganda to make you complicit.

coolfool5d ago

I've never thought "DEI" (although the way most people use it doesn't match it's real definition) is the problem with games. Good games have continued to be good when they have a diverse cast, and likewise, bad games have continued to be bad. There isn't a credible example I've seen where a diverse cast has been the direct cause of a game being bad.

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80°

Silly Polly Beast: A Silent Girl's Fight for Freedom • VGMM

Play as Polly, a silent girl on the run from her dark past in this neon-soaked psychological horror shooter.

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