Square Enix - The Next Generation?

Thanks to GameSpot for its feature regarding a Square Enix analyst's attempts to grow the company into the online and mobile arenas. This new strategy "...has two main themes - one that recognizes the limitations of the current-console platforms and one that acknowledges the fascination consumers have with online gameplay." The analyst, Ichiro Otobe, discusses the importance of community above all: "You need to have something like a Final Fantasy XI that can attract a certain community of people. In a way, our content is more a kind of bait to attract strong community, and the actual content is offered through the communication with these communities [of players]", and also has interesting theories on the perceived decline of the Japanese games market, suggesting it's "...actually a shift of users' interests. Most of the people spend time and money for mobile content, but most of the money is actually going to packet fees, which, in turn, go to network carriers."

Comments

So in other words...

[MMaestro]

one that recognizes the limitations of the current-console platforms and one that acknowledges the fascination consumers have with online gameplay."

So in otherwords, the acknowledgement that running a MMORPG game without a hard drive built in is very hard and the fact that people are amazed at the fact that PC gamers have been playing RPGs with OTHER PEOPLE for years now. Basicly meaning that console MMORPGs will eventually mimic and merge with PC MMORPGs, as console RPGs have generally focused on strict linear storylines for one player.

Hear that Nintendo?

[Anonymous Coward]

Get on the Online bandwagon

FInal Fantasy movie: Take 2

[C0rinthian]

Will Advent Children suffer the same fate as The Spirits Within? "We learned a lot from the movie experience," Otobe said. "This is really a new type of movie content." Reflecting more on The Spirits Within, Otobe said, "We should have created something that looked more animation-like. Think of artists. They have the ability to create realistic pictures, but they don't. They create artistic expressions. We should have done the same thing, but we didn't. That was a huge mistake."

This makes me very hopeful that Advent Children will be what The Spirits Within should have been. I bet aiming for a DVD release instead of theatres will give Advent a much better chance of being commercially successful, as the break even point won't be as astronomically high as a theatre release.

For the record, I thought The Spirits Within was a good movie, and a fantastic technical achievement. However I can see why it failed miserably in the box office. The themes were very much in line with those of the rest of the FF series, unfortunately those themes are not that accessible to American audiences. Gaia spirits are a little too deep for Joe Popcorn I think.

BTW, why is it that we can render near photo-realistic faces on characters, but their hands look like rubber? I guess hands are REALLY hard to get right. I know that was one of the traits that really popped at me watching Spirits.

ignores critical point

[tekunokurato]

Wow. What they don't mention AT ALL in this article is that squenix has a major online venture in china which is making up a big chunk of their revenues and winning fans and security in a market with four times as many people as the US.

Re:FInal Fantasy movie: Take 2

[*weasel]

Gaia spirits are a little too deep for Joe Popcorn I think

Or maybe the movie just wasn't that good at all?
If you enjoyed it, more power to you. But you'd be the only person I've ever heard say it was anything less than 'bad'.

Most people have much more strong terms to use for its quality level. And none of them ever mention Gaia as a shortcoming. It has everything to do with the lame characters, the insipid dialogue, the predictable story path, and the overall feeling of 'whatever' that occurs when a story fails to emotionally or dramatically engage the audience.

They make good games - but their movie had bigger problems than trying (and failing) to do photorealism.

Re:Forget the Online stuff!

[Carlos Rodriguez]

Given the fact that the Xbox sells poorly in Japan, I wouldn't count on it. Any game that Square Enix makes for GBA or PS2 is going to sell thousand of copies because the user base for those consoles is much, much larger: why spend money on porting the game to a platform that has a small user base when I could use that same money to make (or remake) a game that has the potential to sell a thousand times more if I release it in a console with a larger user base? That's why we have stuff life Final Fantasy I & II for the GBA and Dragon Quest V for the PS2 instead of any game for the Xbox.

FFXI was a perfect game for the Xbox, since it already had a hard drive and could connect online with minimal hassle, plus Square had already ported the game to PC. And Square Enix still hasn't released it for the Xbox. The console is not in Squeenix's radar as of now. And frankly, I don't think that porting or making games for the Xbox would count as a next level, anyway,

Re:FInal Fantasy movie: Take 2

[Rallion]

I liked it as well, and I agree with the point about the Final Fantasy name. Not only do I think it would have done better without it, I think I would have personally preferred a different title.

Sure, it shares a grand theme with the rest of the Final Fantasy series with Gaia. But the rest of the movie doesn't fit with the series at all. The games are all fantasy worlds with a bit of sci-fi thrown in. Some have more sci-fi than others, sure, the first part of FF7 was very modern, for example. But on the whole, the games are works of fantasy, hence the title. TSW wasn't, it seemed like it was an attempt to make it appeal to American audiences, but it just let me down.

To say it a bit more elegantly, in the game worlds, the sci-fi stuff is to an extent intruding on a world that was previously one of fantasy. In the movie world, it was quite literally the reverse.

Advent Children really looks like it's got it right, IMO. It still looks a lot more sci-fi-oriented than most of the games, but nowhere near the level of the first movie. The fantasy elements go a bit farther than, "ooh, ghosts!"

And they've got swords, which make all the difference.