160°

Squaresoft and Enix Joined Forces 20 Years Ago Today

Square Enix, the juggernaut Japanese publisher that we all know today, was pretty much birthed on this date 20 whole years ago. As the name suggests, it was a merger between Square and Enix — two prominent gaming companies who, were actually rival businesses before they agreed to join hands.

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pushsquare.com
Terry_B884d ago

Yup. Killed a lot of creativity just for money.

kingnick884d ago

A lot of Square's talent left because of lack of creative control and upper management.

Some games like Koudelka that were made by ex-Square employees were flawed gems but I'm glad they exist.

jznrpg884d ago

@kingnick I have 2 copies of Koudelka , it’s a flawed game but they went out of the box and I love it

kingnick884d ago

A lot of brain drain occurred well before the merger and continued post merger so SE was always going to underperforming relative to Square at its peak.

Sad that Final Fantasy The Spirits Within was such a costly failure. Lost Odyssey was great and felt like a homage to Square of old.

Vx_883d ago

True, only old gamer would understand how much we’ve lost from this merge.

Terry_B884d ago

Remember when Squaresoft created and published more and more great games of different genres? Like Bushido Blade? Parasite Eve? Xenogears, Einhänder and Tobal and the Japan only Racing Lagoon? Or even the 2 Wrestling games they released in Japan for the PS2 that were pretty good actually but never made it outside Japan? How Enix was once known for other games than just Dragonquest and published games like Bust A Groove? Yup..that was all before the merger.

After the merger..you got only a few good games from them that weren't totally directed at the mass market.

Terry_B884d ago

ur old!

and I was fucking wrong..they actually released THREE wrestling games there not 2.

OMG

BlackTar187884d ago

Bringing all that up makes me sad and miss the old days.

kingnick884d ago

SE very much played it safe which isn't surprising since Hironobu Sakaguchi advocated for many of the more unique games Square put out which other executives had doubts about. After the failure of Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within the remaining executives became even more conservative because they likely didn't want the disgrace that comes with supporting projects that are seen as failures having seen what happened to Sakaguchi.

Magic_Spatula883d ago (Edited 883d ago )

They still make games not directed at the mass audience. They just aren't the big budget games which are advertised heavily or made by Square themselves. Drakengard, Nier, Bravely Default, I Am Setsuna, Octopath Traveler, etc. All great games IMO. With the business how it is now, it's more costly taking risks than it is to go with something that's tried and true. More costly in the fact that something new might not make them the money they want so they go with something they know will sell like a new Final Fantasy game or make a game using a recently popular IP like Avengers when the whole MCU blew up. Look at EA, Activision, Ubisoft, Konami, Capcom. They have so many great IPs they're just sitting on and doing nothing with because they aren't the recognizable IPs anymore. Square has always been known for big, epic, RPG adventures. Sure they might dip in to other stuff but that's their bread and butter.

+ Show (1) more replyLast reply 883d ago
H9884d ago

One of the saddest days in the industry

Shinox884d ago (Edited 884d ago )

it is by far one of WORST collaboration that has ever happened to an iconic company like Squaresoft , not only we've been cucked from getting a Parasite Eve remake under the name "rebirth" in 2003-4 on the PS2 but also marks the moment that we witness the decline of their quality in making games

kingnick884d ago

The companies had very different management and cultures.

Enix outsourced wherever possible while Square had many closeknit groups of developers who enjoyed working together and experimenting and would later collaborate at other developers.

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80°

Why Portability Still Matters for Nintendo Switch 2—and What We’re Hoping to See

Nintendo Switch 2 upgrades portability with a bigger screen, 1080p handheld play, and Wi-Fi 6. Here's why it still matters in 2025.

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clouddosage.com
Profchaos1d 5h ago

As someone who travels for work I still care about portable systems.

I have found using remote play in a hotel room is an excellent experience in a major city as I've got my console hard wired to a gigabit connection at home however it's not perfect if power trips the console tends to go to the repair section and can't be booted remotely so it's a annoying call to family to power it on for me.

A hotel out of town or regionally though that can cause havok for remote play as I'm always on 5g using it hotel wifi is never good enough for a solid remote play session.

But leaving a stable location and getting onto a plane or train and there's little to no chance of a good experience with remote play thats where something like the switch 2 will really shine for me personally long haul flights are exhausting and one of my most hated things the switch has been invaluable for me and I'll absolutely be upgrading

Goodguy019h ago

Nintendo has always done it the best, handheld is in their genes. I do wish their dock could be like an egpu though and it make it much more powerful, it's a bit harder for me to play portable now for some odd reason, love just sitting on the couch with a big screen and controller. And ofc always great to have the portable option and for me it's best for smaller games.

jznrpg7h ago

I was hoping for a little more than 540p upscaled

UltimateOwnage6h ago

IMO, 540P upscaled in portable mode to a 1080P screen using DLSS on the tensor cores will likely extend battery life using a lower TDP and provide much better anti-aliasing and similar clarity compared to native 1080P with med/low AA at a higher TDP. It’s just a better way to use a mobile chipset. That’s not a flaw or weakness, it’s a key benefit for the portable design of the platform.

repsahj1h ago

Lol, even the impressive upscaling feature of Switch 2 can now spin to a negative one.

70°

Privacy firm files Ubisoft legal complaint over data collection, forced online in singleplayer games

Assassin's Creed maker Ubisoft has been hit by a complaint from a European privacy firm over the data it collects from players.

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eurogamer.net
80°

I Don’t Understand ‘Blue Prince’

Shaz from Pixel Swish: "I had some thoughts (and a lot of questions) on the recently released puzzle roguelike, ‘Blue Prince,’ developed by Dogubomb and published by Raw Fury."

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pixel-swish.com
Knushwood Butt4d ago

Me neither. Deleted it. Robocop is clearly more my level.

lukasmain3d ago

It's pretty damn good. I'm about 16 hours into it. Lots of secrets and mysteries. I'm on day 14 I think. Still haven't beaten it. Gotten very close a few times. Unlocked many secrets already. Instead of writing down things, I usually take pictures with my Playstation and write on them using the editor, its very fast. There is a small element of luck, but mostly it's about learning and planning and solving puzzles that are bigger than the one room you're in or the item you're looking at. There are so many secrets that some players will never know unless you put in the time and learn and pay attention. It's an eerie and mysterious puzzle game. I think it's addicting and a lot of fun. 9/10

kpgs3d ago (Edited 3d ago )

I just got to day 4. First 2 days I started going into it blind, and just trying to remember by memory but got overwhelmed pretty quickly. Got a handy dandy notebook and my notes will definitely help in the long run.

Been enjoying it so far, but with Oblivion dropping and me stupidly picking it up, might take a hit to my playtime on Blue Prince.

I like that critical thinking and puzzle solving go hand in hand, and you're not having your hand held the whole time.

jznrpg3d ago

No game is for everyone. We all have different tastes, some have broader taste some have more specific taste and it’s ok either way. Play what you like!

Christopher3d ago (Edited 3d ago )

***The problem is, the game tells you absolutely nothing about what you’re actually supposed to do.***

Getting to room 46 itself is a puzzle and the whole game tells you to solve puzzles.

***But how do you know if something in a room actually has meaning?***

It's a puzzle game. It's not just going to hand you the answer. I guess this is the point where we get to people who want an NPC to tell them how to solve the part of a puzzle and the people who truly want to figure out the puzzle for themselves.

This makes me feel like some gamers are becoming more like my nephews, they're not solving problems, they're just looking for youtube videos of people who have solved them and following what they did.

P.S. Please don't write another first paragraph like the one in this again. It really sets a tone that you don't know what you're doing.