Wouldn't be surprised if it's all in the pursuit of their rumored desire to be acquired by Playstation/Sony. Look like you've got an endless stream of (theoretically) high-quality releases in the pipeline all the time and look very attractive to some investors.
Square Enix
- Thread starter Jonathan27
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I thought it could be something along the lines of getting all these releases out now to get some sales and then include them all in some sort of SE streaming service launching next year, but that makes sense too. Then again SE releasing multiple games practically back to back isn't exactly new, so maybe they just think it doesn't actually make a difference in terms of the games' commercial performance.
To me, it's almost certainly the latter. Offloading the studios also offloaded a portion of their debt/costs, with their remaining portfolio of the games more focused on some specific genre heavy hitters (Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy). It's probably an easier pitch now to Sony because it's cheaper and a more focused package you're receiving (arguably the "leader" in the industry for JRPGs). Previously, you would be paying a lot of money for a mixed bag of properties, genres, and degrees of 'success'.
I remember the Embracer sale being notable for how 'cheap' they got everything, which does seem to align to the theory that it came with a certain amount of debt/monetary obligations.
I personally do not think that a Sony acquisition of the remnants of Square Enix bodes well for fans of the company's recent archival work (i.e. digital re-releases of their entire backlog), nor for genre traditionalists. Sony has never prioritized that, especially now, and generally has shifted its entire focus to "what will appeal to the US audience." I think we'll get a series of Final Fantasies that try to emulate Elden Ring in both tone and (half-baked attempt at) gameplay.
The Western studios were already getting blamed for Eastern studio failures. Crystal Dynamics were then brought on as a support team for Perfect Dark at Xbox which may have been a hint at them not minding them getting bought out, the Marvel deal was evidently a bust and most the Eidos teams were getting scammed out of making games from their own IP. Square fucked up their Western teams big time and I imagine they are hoping for some level of Enix merger style saviour again...
I also think it's funny how apparently having Embracer as their overlord is a massive step up for most of the studios that were sold off. Embracer is pretty hands-off with their devs and allow for a lot of freedom, and they also are pretty interested in remastering older games (something the Tomb Raider series was in desperate need of) and keeping IPs active with merch on an ongoing basis.
Square Enix was giving any and all of its Western franchises the bare minimum and expecting gigantic hits out of each one. The company is just not great at scaling, especially on a global level. Think back to how the 360/PS3 generation was such a clusterfuck for their dev teams–they really can't deal with growth.
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Exactly. Ironically their most reliable western series half the time was Life is Strange with its modest budgets and strong sales against them. They just couldn't handle AAA across east or west
nn Square Enix exists purely as an extension of the dreams of the fayth, they are not bound by sense or reality.
Maybe the real Zanarkand was Aki Ross and Square Pictures
Bad movie but it did lead to Mistwalker being created and giving us Lost Odyssey and The Last Story which both slam
The way Final Fantasy XIV is probably keeping half of Square-Enix on a payroll... iconic.
Wow! I NEED to get around to playing these. I've been interested since the demo for the first one.
What they need to do is bring back Bust a Groove
Been banging this drum for years!! My absolute favorite game duology of all time (Dance Summit 2001: Bust A Move is...fine). I even tracked down a copy of the arcade version of Bust a Groove 2 in 2020 just because it had a few exclusive songs.
There was some official merch released earlier this year, and I'm huffing copium that it means something can happen with the IP soonish. The games were impossible to emulate accurately until a year or two ago, so I'm wondering if there's also a possible technical difficulty in producing remasters, especially given 1) the source code is probably lost, and 2) Modern TVs do not play well with rhythm games of the past. The Parappa the Rapper remaster basically had to make timing way more lenient as a result.
One plus is that none of the songs are licensed, which probably makes reissuing the trilogy way easier.
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Yeah, the nice thing about BaG2 emulation is that the hit timing is tied to the FPS, so as long as your comp is not a toaster it runs beautifully.
i quite like Dance Summit 2001 for how different it is but the music does not compare.
i quite like Dance Summit 2001 for how different it is but the music does not compare.