Square Enix Wants Console Experiences on Mobile Platforms

[StewShearerOld]

Square Enix Wants Console Experiences on Mobile Platforms

In the wake of a bad fiscal year, Square Enix wants to further explore the possibilities of mobile gaming.

Square Enix had a expanding that area of its business.

Now Square Enix president Yosuke Matsuda has revealed that in the future the publisher will be releasing a wider breadth of content to mobile devices, including games that might have traditionally been reserved for home console releases. "Moving forward we are thinking to push into publishing games on smart phones and tablets, which we had hitherto only published on game consoles, in particular our strong-point of single player, story-driven games, etc," said Matsuda. "I have already given these instructions to our development teams, and we are moving ahead with this effort. Until now we have published games on these devices such as remakes of our old titles or turning our old franchises into social games, but going forward, in addition to these efforts, we will create new game titles of similar type."

While a new focus on mobile gaming will likely have some eyes rolling, this may very well be exactly what the company needs. There may be some who love the publisher's multi-year, massive budget projects, but it's become very clear that that sort of game isn't making the kind of money it used to. Perhaps by tethering the development of console-style titles to the capabilities of mobile devices, Square Enix will be forced to scale back and work on more manageable projects. And you never know, with the emphasis taken off of producing the prettiest games on the market, it may even be able to recapture some of the charm of its older titles (and uglier) titles.

Source: Siliconera [http://www.siliconera.com/2013/05/26/square-enix-will-make-console-like-games-for-smartphones-and-tablets/]


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[Uratoh]

I just read the title and think 'so they want to make awkward CG movies for mobile devices?'

 

[PunkRex]

And you never know, with the emphasis taken off of producing the prettiest games on the market, it may even be able to recapture some of the charm of its older titles (and uglier) titles.

It was never about the graphics for me personally, although what you say has alot of truth to it, until they make some characters that don't make me want to self harm im not really interested.

Im not sure I can handle that much agnst whilst out and about.

 

[BloodRed Pixel]

actually, their games catalog for iApple devices is pretty strong and CG-behaved. They are one of the very few, besides Gameloft and very very few other companies to even TRY and bring "console quality"* games to the mobile market.


*in the positive notion it had until the 'PS3/X360-experience' started to derail.

 

[Colt47]

As much as we all like to hit on them for focusing more on the CGI than on the actual gameplay, I think they were going through a phase much like what Microsoft is now going through, where the company just has this major disconnect with the audience they are trying to market for due to internal reasons. Also, the model for game development is still being pieced together, as unlike other software development projects, games are an incredibly subjective end user experience. In fact, it seems like the larger the project, the greater the need for transparency and feedback with the public.

 

[Terramax]

And you never know, with the emphasis taken off of producing the prettiest games on the market, it may even be able to recapture some of the charm of its older titles (and uglier) titles.

It was never about the graphics for me personally, although what you say has alot of truth to it, until they make some characters that don't make me want to self harm im not really interested.

Im not sure I can handle that much agnst whilst out and about.

Actually, the graphics for their games, even on the Snes and PSone were mind-blowing. I, for one, would LOVE to see Final Fantasy return to pre-rendered graphics.

 

[Zato-1]

iOS is swamped by bad games, and Squeenix is one of the very few companies that releases games I actually like for the platform. I'd much rather pay $20 for a quality Squeenix game I'll have fun playing than $1 or $3 for several unpolished titles or, even worse, freemium titles that tell you you can play for free but then relentlessly harass you for money.

When I see EA claiming to want to focus more on mobile platforms I just roll my eyes, but Squeenix making more games for them is a good thing as far as I'm concerned- much better than another Final Fantasy XIII game or (yes I'm going there) its ongoing train wreck that is Final Fantasy XIV. The only "Console" games from Squeenix I'm interested in nowadays are those made by Eidos anyway (Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Sleeping Dogs, possibly Tomb Raider).

 

[StewShearerOld]

And you never know, with the emphasis taken off of producing the prettiest games on the market, it may even be able to recapture some of the charm of its older titles (and uglier) titles.

It was never about the graphics for me personally, although what you say has alot of truth to it, until they make some characters that don't make me want to self harm im not really interested.

Im not sure I can handle that much agnst whilst out and about.

Actually, the graphics for their games, even on the Snes and PSone were mind-blowing. I, for one, would LOVE to see Final Fantasy return to pre-rendered graphics.

I actually prefer the SNES handily over the PS1. FFIV looks dated, but V (less so) and VI still look great in my opinion. The pre-rendered portions of the PS1 era are also very nice, but the rest of the games are rough. VII just looks horrendously bad in some places.

 

[Shoggoth2588]

I just read the title and think 'so they want to make awkward CG movies for mobile devices?'

I came to the same conclusion...then I thought about it for a moment and had a funny little thought of SquareEnix releasing a full $60 game on iOS and the Android marketplace and then weeks later announcing that they're shutting down.

---

While it might sound like a good idea to put full games onto mobile devices you can't forget that a majority of the people who download mobile games and apps will download the free-version of the thing, fiddle with it for a day to a week and then either delete it or, forget about it outright.

I don't see SE doing very well if they try bringing full on console-style games to mobile devices. I don't see this killing them but this probably isn't going to help them.

 

[008Zulu_v1legacy]

I thought they'd want more money.

Here's the thing though. We wont get the experience because unlike mobile devices, consoles have proper controllers that allow for a greater variety of control and functionality. With a mobile all you can do is tilt, swipe or tap. A far cry from the hundred or so combinations a 8 buttons, 2 thumbsticks and a d-pad on a controller allow.

 

[Zato-1]

@008Zulu:
Thing is, you don't need 100 button combinations to make an iOS game like Final Fantasy Dimensions (which is great, by the way). Sure, the control scheme limits the types of games you can make for the platform; you won't be making Devil May Cry or Starcraft for iOS, but jRPGs can be every bit as good as (or even better than) Squeenix's old masterpieces like Final Fantasy VI.

 

[Marohen]

So, what, did All the Bravest make money? That'd be just about the worst thing ever!

And while I think the iOS market is a great way for a larger company to experiment with newer IPs or developers, it is certainly not anything a AAA publisher can support themselves on, even if it turns out profitable.

 

[GAunderrated]

iOS is swamped by bad games, and Squeenix is one of the very few companies that releases games I actually like for the platform. I'd much rather pay $20 for a quality Squeenix game I'll have fun playing than $1 or $3 for several unpolished titles

Final Fantasy: All the Bravest would like to have a word with you. That is a brand new FF game that was an unpolished turd that was extremely overpriced.

SE sees the mobile market as a way to milk the FF brand in ways that is a lot less costly than consoles. They love the idea of making you pay 35 dollars in microtransactions for a game worth about 10 (final fantasy Dimensions).

 

[Big_Boss_Mantis]

Tomb Raider which were expensive to make and sold fewer copies than the company expected.

Yes, indeed Square Enix complained about its performance.
Still, even though it may not have posted profit as an individual game, it was very successful in building (rebooting, in the case) a franchise.
The game sold well (even if it didn't recouped its overblown budget), was well-received critically, and really was a blast to play! The game rocked!

The second one is probably gonna be made much cheaper (since they can use all the tools and assets they developed for making the first one) and can be very successful if they stick to the formula. (and resist the urge to make it stupidly Uncharted-like linear, or make Lara an superhero...)

So I think it is very short sighted to call up on the game's failure. (be it Squenix doing it or anyone...)

 

[Zato-1]

iOS is swamped by bad games, and Squeenix is one of the very few companies that releases games I actually like for the platform. I'd much rather pay $20 for a quality Squeenix game I'll have fun playing than $1 or $3 for several unpolished titles

Final Fantasy: All the Bravest would like to have a word with you. That is a brand new FF game that was an unpolished turd that was extremely overpriced.

SE sees the mobile market as a way to milk the FF brand in ways that is a lot less costly than consoles. They love the idea of making you pay 35 dollars in microtransactions for a game worth about 10 (final fantasy Dimensions).

Final Fantasy: All the Bravest was terrible, and I didn't buy it. I didn't say ALL of Squeenix's games for iOS are good, I didn't much care for its card collecting game either for instance- but I had a great time with Hills & Rivers Remain, as well as with its Final Fantasy (I) port and Crystal Defenders and now Final Fantasy Dimensions. Chaos Rings was so-so.

What I'm getting at is that having ANY good games for iOS is pretty rare, and Squeenix's ~50% batting average is leaps and bounds better than the 2% or so I've found for the iOS platform overall. Also, I'll have you know that it's literally impossible to pay $35 for Final Fantasy Dimensions- I bought all of the game's chapters for $20.

 

[PoolCleaningRobot]

I'm actually kind of like this idea. I'll be upgrading my phone soon and I'd like to see full blown titles on android

 

[cidbahamut]

This is the desperate flailing of a dying man.

 

[GAunderrated]

iOS is swamped by bad games, and Squeenix is one of the very few companies that releases games I actually like for the platform. I'd much rather pay $20 for a quality Squeenix game I'll have fun playing than $1 or $3 for several unpolished titles

Final Fantasy: All the Bravest would like to have a word with you. That is a brand new FF game that was an unpolished turd that was extremely overpriced.

SE sees the mobile market as a way to milk the FF brand in ways that is a lot less costly than consoles. They love the idea of making you pay 35 dollars in microtransactions for a game worth about 10 (final fantasy Dimensions).

Final Fantasy: All the Bravest was terrible, and I didn't buy it. I didn't say ALL of Squeenix's games for iOS are good, I didn't much care for its card collecting game either for instance- but I had a great time with Hills & Rivers Remain, as well as with its Final Fantasy (I) port and Crystal Defenders and now Final Fantasy Dimensions. Chaos Rings was so-so.

What I'm getting at is that having ANY good games for iOS is pretty rare, and Squeenix's ~50% batting average is leaps and bounds better than the 2% or so I've found for the iOS platform overall. Also, I'll have you know that it's literally impossible to pay $35 for Final Fantasy Dimensions- I bought all of the game's chapters for $20.

You are correct you didn't say all but with no specific examples it was implied which is why I addressed it. You might have not gotten the game at release then because the actual release price was 28.99 total not 35. That was my mistake but still an outrageous price.

http://www.destructoid.com/final-fantasy-dimensions-thirty-bucks-for-an-ios-game--233725.phtml

 

[Sir Christopher McFarlane]

I hope "mobile devices" includes dedicated gaming portables.
I would love some of that FFV remake on my 3DS.