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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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Terry_B517d ago

Yup. Killed a lot of creativity just for money.

kingnick517d 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.

jznrpg517d ago

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

kingnick517d 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_516d ago

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

Terry_B517d 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_B517d ago

ur old!

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

OMG

BlackTar187517d ago

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

kingnick516d 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_Spatula516d ago (Edited 516d 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.

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H9517d ago

One of the saddest days in the industry

Shinox517d ago (Edited 517d 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

kingnick516d 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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100°

Outriders Dev's Next Game Has Been Canceled After Publishing Agreement With Take-Two Fell Through

Outriders developer People Can Fly's next game has been canceled after its publishing agreement with Take-Two Interactive fell through.

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Tacoboto1d 3h ago

"the capital group of PCF Group S.A."

If you're getting funding from a group that needs two different ways of Acronyming itself, things will not go the way you want them to.

banger8821h ago

If it was more online-only crap then good riddance.

jjb19818h ago

Outriders was crap. They slapped that game together and threw in a loot system to get players' attention. This game was absolutely jank and the always online nonsense made it stutter like crazy. People Can't Optimize.

thorstein6h ago

I liked Outriders but I could see where the artistic vision was compromised. The way the industry is now, it wouldn't surprise me that upper management would scrap something that didn't pull in money via gaas, mts, or other means.

270°

Microsoft’s Surface and Xbox hardware revenues take a big hit in Q3

Microsoft just posted the third quarter of its 2024 fiscal financial results. The software maker made $61.9 billion in revenue and a net income of $21.9 billion during Q3. Revenue is up 17 percent, and net income has increased by 20 percent.

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darthv721d 1h ago

Xbox content + services up 62% while hardware down 31%... seems about right with the way they tout you don't need the hardware to play. People can play on their phones or smart tv or other means. I don't hardly play on my consoles directly since getting devices like the logitech g-cloud and ps portal. Which is to also say I have been playing more digital than physical because of these devices.

solideagle12h ago

you should apply in MS PR team buddy, I think you will do a great job in my humble opinion :)

Sonic18819h ago

I thought darthv72 and Obscure_Observer already work for Microsoft 🤔

dveio9h ago

MS: "Xbox services and content without AB up 1%, with AB up 62%. Hardware down 31%. In total a loss of 350 mill."

darthv72: "Seems about right."

MS: "Excuse m ..."

darthv72: "I don't hardly play on my consoles directly."

MS:

Lightning774h ago

What he said was facts. How he plays games is no concern of you. Don't get too mad about it.

Cacabunga11h ago

I can tell people like you are an absolute minority..

If service is up means their fans and fanboys accepted this model and subscribed to it. The near future you will see a big decline because the service is saturated.

shinoff218310h ago

But that's been ms for years. When things aren't going their way they try to change the way things are said. For instance console sales are down, they stop telling how many sold instead telling us how many hours spent in halo or headshots. So it makes sense console sales down just say people are playing on more devices then previous. What they won't say is how many xbox players jumped ship to ps5.

Cacabunga9h ago

Hardware sales are so bad that Sony and Nintendo are blowing the sales off the water with their hardware.

If Xbox are losers, others aren’t..
Xbox already tried everything with Xbox live then subscriptions went down so much that they had to find something else. Their fans subscribed then reached saturation rather quickly.

Hardware and exclusive games is where it’s at! Keep gamers excited, announce decent software and people will support you

itsmebryan5h ago

@shin
Well keep it simple Sony 's operating income is down 26% and Microsoft's is up 32%. No MS spin there, just facts. 😉
Cheers

romulus234h ago

Odd that a company that touts you dont need the hardware to play is already touting another console in the works.

darthv724h ago

They are not reliant on the HW but still want to maintain a presence (no matter how small) is a good thing. It shows commitment to the craft. It reminds me of SNK and how they made games for their own hardware (Neo Geo) while also making them for others because they knew there was a market to do so. They knew they would sell more to others but also sell to their own niche fan base.

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purple10114h ago

Xbox hardware revenue tanks to lowest point of Xbox Series generation

Profchaos13h ago

I'm not surprised surface is struggling they aren't relevant anymore

DOMination-3h ago

In the last two years they've started exiting the consumer market altogether. All of the newest Surface products are business models only. They can't seem to work out what they want to do with it.

XBManiac13h ago

Too expensive hardware when others offer the same or more for less? Good work, Green Team.

SimpleDad12h ago(Edited 12h ago)

"Despite some early successes for Xbox games on rival platforms, Xbox hardware is down by a massive 31 percent this quarter."
"Without Activision Blizzard, Microsoft’s overall gaming revenue would have actually declined this quarter."
"Xbox content and services would have only been up a single percent without Activision Blizzard..."
"It looks like next quarter is going to be a similar story for gaming at Microsoft, too."

That is crazy... so A/B/K is carrying the whole Xbox gaming.
Oh and Microsoft will be fine. Windows, Office and Cloud are growing with each pc purchase.

purple10112h ago

Activision: "we gonna need a bigger rucksack/backpack please"

Microsoft: "why's that"

Activision: "to carry yo' weak ass'

Profchaos12h ago(Edited 12h ago)

Top brass have also wanted to start seeing returns on the 100 billion they have put into various Xbox related moves so seeing more multiplatform games is highly likely especially from abk

It's basically saying that PlayStation is the reason Xbox is afloat right now thinks to Ps5 versions of COD

Kornholic10h ago

So basically PS and PC gamers' money is keeping Xbox on life support.

MrDead3h ago

The only growth MS will get out of the console industry is if it supports it's rivals platforms. Xbox is a pointless machine now. I can see them on a big push for live next, and they won't give up on trying to buy Steam.

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90°

An Update on This Year’s BlizzCon and Blizzard’s 2024 Live Events

Blizzard writes: "After careful consideration over the last year, we at Blizzard have made the decision not to hold BlizzCon in 2024. This decision was not made lightly as BlizzCon remains a very special event for all of us, and we know many of you look forward to it. While we’re approaching this year differently and as we have explored different event formats in the past, rest assured that we are just as excited as ever to bring BlizzCon back in future years."

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PRIMORDUS22h ago

How about you not hold Blizzcon anymore period. You fucking POS company. I really hope Blizzard would just die.