Square Enix expanding for "new consoles"

Eurogamer: Square Enix plans to open a second Canadian studio where at least 100 people will focus on making big games for the new generation of home consoles.

[Dylantalon1]

cant wait for the new consoles

[BakedGoods]

As a big 360 gamer, I think the system's officially dried up. I too can't wait for their next one.

Next-gen Halo!

[DragonKnight]

Lol, you keep switching around don't you?

SE shouldn't bother expanding for future consoles until they can get the games they make this gen right.

[limewax]

Honestly thought square-enix would be better off opening this new studio to cater particularly to the new handhelds. Next home consoles could be a while still.

That said I also think this has some real strategy behind it. Maybe this time they will not take so long to reach the new consoles. And to be honest I dont feel the white engine is out of date at all. I imagine it could easily be upgraded to suit the next gen. So who knows, This could be a VERY clever idea

[Seferoth75]

You do know it took them like 5 years to get FF out for next gen console? So if they wait til release it'll be 5 years into that gen before we see anything from them.

Companies are always given new specs early so they can start working on launch titles and getting to know the new hardware in general.

[DragonKnight]

@Seferoth: You realize don't you that FFXIII took 5 years not because it needed to, but because SE were horrible devs with that game right? For starters, it began as a PS2 game and didn't even have the characters it does now.

Second, they because of reason number one, they had to restart from scratch for the PS3.

Third, halfway through production, they decided to make the engine multiplat and neglected to inform everyone that the game was heading towards being multiplat until that infamous E3 announcement.

If you look at what little is in the game, there is no way that such a linear, half-game, like FFXIII should have taken 5 years to make. They were just awful at their jobs for the whole thing.

[madjedi]

@baked goods Not sure what you mean, by dried up, exclusives maybe?

I think the biggest problem with the 360 is a lack of really solid 1st party devs and the unwillingness or laziness by mgs. If you will to build a new engine that is optimized to take full advantage of the 360's hardware and not rely on either the unreal 3 engine or old engines.

I don't know the details of reaches engine so who knows, maybe ms has 343 tasked with making a new engine for the next xbox.

[Ryudo]

Why is someone getting spammed disagrees for simply looking forward to the next set of consoles?

Does everyone on N4G follow the same opinion can't anyone think for themselves?

[Seferoth75]

Current gen console havent been maxed yet. Why do we need new more powerful consoles when devs are not even using the power of current consoles to their fullest?

[firefoxprime]

C'mon dude. Its "N4G". Yeah the ps3 fans thrwarted the evil Box empire a couple years back. Yet some ps3 fans are becoming just as overbearing as the box fans back in 07.

That to "me" is kinda sad.

Besides...who cares about individuality? Speaking your mind if for losers! Hive mentality is the way!/s

yeah :/

[phantomexe]

Id bet we are about to see a new wii. I can't see sony or MS readying a new consul anytime soon.

[cochise313]

Maybe they will suck less next console generation.

[BlueEye]

Eh, cool? I love Canada.

[Megaton]

Still haven't delivered a single good game during this console generation.

[phantomexe]

You must not be a gamer megaton. Play games not the consuls. You don't owe MS,Sony or nintendo anything. There are some games you would like on the wii but i'm not going sit here like some others listing the games.

[Megaton]

They haven't delivered a single good game on the 360, PS3 or the Wii. Better?

[lelo2play]

I think he was referring to Square Enix... they haven't delivered a single good game this generation.

[Stealth20k]

So what seems to be happening is using those over seas departments for shoddy console games (For the most part, deus ex being the exception) and there expanded japanese operations for the 3ds/psp2/wii/ps3

[Ddouble]

I hope this translates to less delays

[Capt-FuzzyPants]

I think thats the whole point of it.

[Godmars290]

I hope it translates into better titles than they had for the PS3 and 360.

[Lirky]

Lol square enix can't expand they cant even place old rpgs on psn store in batches or bringing them every week to psn store.

See : SagaFrontier its on japanese psn but not on u.s. and euro psn yet.

[Capt-FuzzyPants]

So with this they shouldnt have the problems they faced with FF13. It was originally started on the ps2. So this should be a good thing for the next gen of consoles when they come out in a couple of years.

[2v1]

so is truth,this will be more faster from now on than we may expect. two years from now a the release date will be no joke.

[Lamarthedancer]

Maybe next gen they'll finally realise to give us a remake of 7/8/9 instead of a sequel to the worst FF game ever, Final fantasy 13

[madjedi]

Anyone else disturbed by the fact that ff13 already has a sequel in the works and ffvs13 isn't even out in japan yet?

It's like damn concentrate on getting a real final fantasy out this gen, before you try pushing a sequel of a spinoff at us, your relevancy is almost gone se.

[Swiftfox]

From the quote given, they don't exactly seem sure when/if the new consoles will be showing up. This seems more like a pre-emptiv.

In fact, given the events in Japan this past week, I wouldn't be suprised if this was a project to help relieve some of the pressures of Square Enix JP.

After Japan has settle and if the new home consoles havn't been released, this studios focus will probably be the 3DS and NGP.

[Optical_Matrix]

Make a masterpiece on current gen systems before you even think about that SE.

[Moerdigan]

square enix has been doing decent in the hand held sector, but they have been having trouble with big projects on home consoles this gen. Maybe it's wise that they are letting others handle the big stuff, but at the same time it's pretty sad that they couldn't get their sht together on their own with their own teams in Japan.

[Silly gameAr]

Hope they do better next gen then they did this one, as far as home consoles are concerned anyway.

[HacSawJimThugin]

Next-gen really? How about focusing on this gen and pushing out more quality product so that we have something other than shooters to chose from. I can't believe these companies. No one announced a new version of the Xbox or Playstation, so, why allocate resources to something that is still a few years out? And who could really afford them in this economy? Whatever...

[firefoxprime]

Preach it brotha!

[iWishTifaWasReal]

fck next gen consoles, im still enjoying this generation :/

[bigjclassic]

KZ3 will be hard to top with effects, and console cycles last about 5 years anyway. Plus anybody that is any kind of gamer know that SE has only delivered on handhelds this generation.

MS and Nintendo are due, maybe over due. Also usually the 1st one to 100 million wins, and we all know who that is.....

[madjedi]

I disagree your neglecting a few very important issues, first the economy isn't in as good of shape as 2005/2006, both sony and ms sold the units at first at a loss and need to make it back.

2nd is for ps3 and 360 games the development costs are alot steeper than the wii, some devs will want to make as much money back as possible. 3rd ms and sony could want to release the next gen consoles today, but if the third parties aren't behind it, it's not happening.

So don't be the least bit surprised if sony and ms let the gen run longer than 5 yrs, till the consoles are actually maxed out ie games no longer look or run better, the next gen systems aren't needed.