Square Enix Vs. Homogeneity

[The Wooster]

Square Enix Vs. Homogeneity

Soon-to-be Square Enix president, Yosuke Matsuda, on the folly of chasing the worldwide blockbuster.

Like many publishers, Square Enix is selling a ton of games, yet not making any money. Earlier this month, the Final Fantasy developer and publisher revealed it had lost nearly $135 million in 2012, despite a 15.7% net increase in game sales. In a bid to stave off financial disaster - or, at least, a bigger financial disaster - the publisher has announced a three-pronged plan intended to boost sales and cut costs. So, what are those prongs? Well, the publisher is looking to appeal to the growing "mid-core" market with more "console-like" games for mobiles [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/124362-Square-Enix-Wants-Console-Experiences-on-Mobile-Platforms?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=news], trying to increase customer awareness by giving gamers a bigger say in a game's development and, finally, it's going to stop chasing those elusive worldwide megahits.

Essentially, Square Enix has been approaching its big-budget games as if they're guaranteed to sell in every market. You can judge for yourself [http://www.hd.square-enix.com/eng/news/pdf/20130527_01en.pdf] how well that has been working from a financial standpoint.

"We created our budgets on the basis that our games would be sold worldwide," said soon-to-be Square Enix president, Yosuke Matsuda. "We had not given much consideration of the regionality of each market, and had focused more on how to sell the major titles globally; however, titles fitting this method are limited."

"As the sheer amount of and diversification of game and entertainment products is increasing, I believe it is difficult to move forward on the assumption that many products can cover the tastes of the entire world, and sell across the entire world," he continued.

Many believe that Japanese developers trying to "westernize" their games in pursuit of larger profits are missing the point; That the unique, Japanese flavor is what attracted gamers to these games in the first place. If Matsuda is suggesting a system in which Japanese games are free to be Japanese rather than pale imitations of Western titles, that sounds great.

Of course, this could also mean that Square Enix might be considering scaling back its already spotty localization efforts. Foreign games don't sell particularly well in Japan (foreign consoles even less so) and, despite a very vocal fanbase, JRPGs that don't have the words Fantasy, Final, Quest or Dragon on their covers rarely end up shifting millions of units in the west. Hopefully, Square Enix's new direction includes more measured localization efforts rather than none whatsoever.

Source: Square Enix [http://www.hd.square-enix.com/eng/news/pdf/20130527_01en.pdf]



Permalink

 

[Saladfork]

Well, hope that works out for em. I don't like their games, myself, but I get the impression that they're pretty close to the only source you have if you're into JRPGs but don't actually speak Japanese. As far as I know, there isn't really anyone else in the market that could fill the English-speaking JRPG fan niche if they decide to stop localizing altogether.

 

[VanQ]

Many believe that Japanese developers trying to "westernize" their games in pursuit of larger profits are missing the point; That the unique, Japanese flavor is what attracted gamers to these games in the first place. If Matsuda is suggesting a system in which Japanese games are free to be Japanese rather than pale imitations of Western titles, that sounds great.

Halle-fucking-luiah!

It's about damn time they realised that. I know that most Japanese game companies like ATLUS and GUST never fell for the whole westernization crap, we've still seen companies like CAPCOM and SEGA lose a lot of the charm their original games had in an attempt to maximize their sales potential. I hope more big Japanese companies pull their head out of the sand and start doing what they do best. Making Japanese games. Let's let America and the rest of the world deal with the Western titles from now on.

Well, hope that works out for em. I don't like their games, myself, but I get the impression that they're pretty close to the only source you have if you're into JRPGs but don't actually speak Japanese. As far as I know, there isn't really anyone else in the market that could fill the English-speaking JRPG fan niche if they decide to stop localizing altogether.

The Tales series is a pretty good example. Then there's also Pokemon. Both are very popular with the English-speaking JRPG niche. You can count in Disgaea, Fire Emblem, Atelier and SMT as well. Though I would list those under games that haven't let the west influence them and go figure, they're all as popular as they ever were.

 

[V da Mighty Taco]

What I'm getting from this story is this: SE is focusing less on core gamers, and most likely will abide by the old Japanese tradition that Capcom loves so much of not releasing many of their games outside of Japan. Now of course this is just speculation, but that's what it seems like to me.

 

[Dryk]

Here's hoping that they haven't learnt their lesson too late

 

[Trishbot]

Scale back the budgets and try new things.

I miss the days when it was MUCH more than Final Fantasy, Kindgom Hearts, and Dragon Quest.

Remember the days of Xenogears, Chrono Trigger, Chrono Cross, Secret of Mana, Bushido Blade, Parasite Eve, Front Mission, SaGa series, The Bouncer, Valkyrie Profile, Vagrant Story, Ehrgeiz, Bahamut Lagoon, Tobal, Brave Fencer Musashi, Super Mario RPG, and Threads of Fate? Good times....

 

[Colt47]

Yet another company failing to realize that building pc and console games is lucrative if they focus on smaller projects that target more specific groups than "every household with a PS3". Well, here's hoping the FFXIV ARR MMO project turns out to be a success and not bomb hard.

 

[BeeGeenie]

Well that's good news. It's about time.
It might mean they'll get back to actually making games, 'cause I don't particularly care if they localize their next interactive movie/ hallway simulator.

 

[Kuilui]

I'd love nothing more than an honest to goodness jrpg from square. I miss the fun Japanese games from my childhood. Now it's all explosions,cutscenes and boring nonsense I couldn't possibly care less about. Maybe the developers from when Square was a company I adored will finally be allowed to do what they do best again.

 

[badgersprite]

Many believe that Japanese developers trying to "westernize" their games in pursuit of larger profits are missing the point; That the unique, Japanese flavor is what attracted gamers to these games in the first place. If Matsuda is suggesting a system in which Japanese games are free to be Japanese rather than pale imitations of Western titles, that sounds great.

Halle-fucking-luiah!

It's about damn time they realised that. I know that most Japanese game companies like ATLUS and GUST never fell for the whole westernization crap, we've still seen companies like CAPCOM and SEGA lose a lot of the charm their original games had in an attempt to maximize their sales potential. I hope more big Japanese companies pull their head out of the sand and start doing what they do best. Making Japanese games. Let's let America and the rest of the world deal with the Western titles from now on.

You can see how badly it worked out for them when FFXIII was essentially just a straight-up retelling of the Hero's Journey/Hero With A Thousand Faces, and yet the game itself seemed to think that this kind of story was something mind-blowing and revolutionary when really it was just poorly impersonating a very generic and overdone plot that simply tried to mask its lack of originality and overly simplistic messages and storyline by trying obscure the plot behind convoluted nonsense and poor, repetitive dialogue. It was like it was made by people who only got a sense of what international audiences enjoy/how they act by watching movies or TV shows.

The best way to make a game succeed? Make something that you know is good. Just set out to tell a good story. The fact that it has Japanese sensibilities isn't going to alienate Western audiences. It didn't alienate us in previous Final Fantasy titles.

Stop thinking of games as a marketable product that will have appeal to different demographics if you tick certain boxes. Thinking of them that way just shows how little passion they have for actually trying to create a moving story these days. Instead they're just thinking of games as mass-produced units coming off a production line intended solely to generate revenue.

 

[Nurb]

giving gamers a bigger say in a game's development

That is a very bad idea. Taking suggestions is fine, but anything more than that is asking for trouble...

 

[Mistilteinn]

Why can't Square-Enix just focus on making good games? Not targeting the 'tastes' of specific regions or any of this other stuff; just put some heart and soul into games like they used too. FFVII is a good game because the player can see the amount of time and effort put into the characters and story, FFIX is a good game because it was like a love letter to its older fans, Chrono Trigger is a good game because you feel like what you do in the game matters. FFXIII is all flash with a bunch of garbled up nonsense in the name of 'vision'. It looks pretty, but that's about it.

It's not the graphics or the CGI or the crazy hairdos that make us buy their games, it's the quality of the story, the characters' personalities, and the massive amount of content within the game. None of those three games were targeting specific areas in the world, nor would I say they had specific demographics outside of the males in their teens-to-late-twenties, which is about as unspecific as you could get back then.

Just focus on making good games, SE. Honest heart and soul into your work, and not what you think the consumer wants or what will impress them the most. That's the secret. If you make a quality title, people will want it, people will buy it.

 

[CriticalMiss]

Does this mean we will get a Tomb Raider game that isn't Gears of War, or are they specifically talking about their Japanese developed games? It would be nice to get a Final Fantasy game that I actually want to play through this decade.

 

[wulfy42]

It might have something to do with the insane prices SE always tries to get away with. Look at it's RPGs for Ipad for instance, compared to other similar games the price is 5-10x as much. I have not bought any of them at those prices, so maybe it's worth it...but I bet they get FAR fewer sales selling things at $20+ dollars then they would selling them at $10 or so (well more then twice as many probably)

Maybe they think anything they do is wonderful, but I have been burned too many times by the company and I won't pay huge prices for horrible games anymore. SE has sold me over 10 games I barely played because they blew, until finally...finally I got smart and stopped pre-ordering their stuff (sure took me awhile). I blame the fact that some of my favorite RPGs (FF3/6 for instance) was made by SE.....so I always figured it was worth the risk....at least till I realized it was the exception that a SE game would be great, not the rule.

 

[Shuu]

Interesting. Not sure about the first part of the plan, but at least it's exploring new ground. It might work.

The second part needs to be handled carefully though. It's so often overlooked that the public will often say it wants one thing, but then act differently when it comes time to put their money where their mouth is. Not to mention the games industries notorious inability to make sense of statistical information...

I'm most pleased by the third parts though. In fact, that's the perfect phrasing: "stop chasing those elusive worldwide megahits."
Many (not necessarily all) publishers should take not: We know how huge the core gaming demographic is, but so much of it is already dominated by so few games. Add all the additional middle heavy weight publishers trying to get their slice of the pie regardless of this knowledge, those are gonna be some bloody thing slices.
If I had a big publisher, I'd make the plan in 2014 to fund three projects with mid to large but still modest budgets: a psychological horror, an XCOM style strategy game and a classic run and gun type shooter that doesn't take itself to seriously.
And they would together make a higher profit than a publisher sinking all their money into one generic shooter hoping like everyone else to out-generic Call of Doodie.

 

[Roxas1359]

Scale back the budgets and try new things.

I miss the days when it was MUCH more than Final Fantasy, Kindgom Hearts, and Dragon Quest.

Remember the days of Xenogears, Chrono Trigger, Chrono Cross, Secret of Mana, Bushido Blade, Parasite Eve, Front Mission, SaGa series, The Bouncer, Valkyrie Profile, Vagrant Story, Ehrgeiz, Bahamut Lagoon, Tobal, Brave Fencer Musashi, Super Mario RPG, and Threads of Fate? Good times....

Ah the good old days.
While I love the Kingdom Hearts series the games are at this point overstaying their welcome. The other problem is gonna be that if Versus XIII doesn't sell well then they'll look even stupider since that game was supposed to be a PS3 launch title! Grey hit the nail on the head, companies like SE have been trying to make their games like hoe those in the west are because they make so much more money, but that's not what gamers want. We loved the old Japanese games because they were different from games that we have over here.
While graphics are a nice thing, people don't just play games for the graphics.
If they get the idea of only focusing on making games for Japan and not localizing them then they'll be in even more trouble. Mainly this goes with region locking on consoles, and while that isn't much of a problem for Sony, it is still a problem if they were to make games for the Xbox or Wii/Wii U since those are region locked.

 

[gavinshai]

My favorite part of the article was at the end when there was a line about how JRPGs aren't successful in the west implying making them for that market isn't a good idea, then in the same sentence he said except for titles made by the company we're talking about.

Still it is disheartening to see them bastardize their games for the worldwide appeal rather than leave them the niche titles they have always been and met success as.

 

[viranimus]

Ok, dispensing with the first natural response of Derp!

I find the situation SE, as well as most of the other major players who are "Making more money but are less profitable" down right aneurysm fodder baffling. As easy as it would be to say "No this guy is just stupid" You do have to understand and respect these people are for all intents, the captains of this industry. These are educated individuals who are deeply immersed in day to day understanding, navigation, fluency and frequency of the wide array of finite factors in this industry. You simply do not become the leader of a company with literally thousands of employees without having at least a little bit of vision to generate foresight and intellect to capitalize on it.

So It is so painfully astounding to see these captains of industry lead their organizations in such an oblivious, naive and disassociated perspective that honestly is basically common sense for even the most novice of outside observers.

The reason sales are up but profits are down is because the industry wrongly has this idea that "bigger, better, faster, stronger" is the only way to move forward and that consumers are essentially little more than gullible puppets who will endure and tolerate anything they are handed. These largest of studios are too fixated to try to "outdo" what has came before with larger textures, more lights, more complex physics and the incredibly technical framework games are built on striving forever for infinitely more technical complexity to the point they lose sight of the fundamental core of what a game and honestly any form of entertainment media is intended to be.

An experience. A cohesive, logical set of events that can challenge us, be it our physical skill, our decisive wit, our emotional boundaries, our preconceived notions, essentially anything that might captivate and incite our imagination and or ambition.

The existing generation has existed as unquestioned testement to this. In the face of this current generation of optimized computers that made the last generation appear as little more than a pale shadow in the face of its new horsepower, this generation more than any before showed us that you do not need cutting edge visuals. You do not need thousands of models rendered on screen at the same time, you do not need to infinitely layer complexity on complexity. Some of the best, most notable, memorable and historically notable games of this generation you can honestly look at and question if such a game would have been feasible on earlier systems.

Look at games such as Limbo, Bastion, Dark/Demon's Souls, Amnesia, Minecraft, The Walking Dead, FTL, and so many more that (while not all obviously) will in the eyes of history be defined as major titles that helped define this current generation and not being put out by the largest "triple A" houses. These games succeed where yearly Modern warfare/Bethesda releases fall flat because they stay true to basic core principle. They get right the most important things for any and all games to get right. To be an enjoyable experience for which one can immerse themselves in and accomplish it through making such experiences readily immerse and enjoyable through their elegance in their simplicity.

These experiences do not try to overwhelm our senses with increased fidelity, or previously impossible dexterity. They do not beg the player to be awe strucked by their unimaginable glory. These games encourage, challenge, and outright beg the player, not to simply witness them, but proactively experience them. To give a wide canvas, all manner of paint and brushes and begs to see "What sort of disastrous masterpiece can YOU create?"

These triple A studios are failing because they essentially waste too much time effort and resources on the technical aspects of gaming and pushing the envelop to new climbs but all the while forgetting the player wants to play, to experience, to manipulate, to create, to destroy, to craft their own story within the story. Not to stand idly by as little more than the awe struck with mouth agape only able to bear witness to such a obscene and profane monument so ambitious daring and wild that can only leave those who look at it directly blinded by its opulent brilliance.

And this is but one of the reasons why these paragons will in fact serve their role to rend the industry asunder and crushed by their own weight so that the old intimidating lumbering beast can be slain so the agile new creatures can begin to rebuild the industry out of the beasts bloated corpse.

Captcha: Civil war. I think you might well have hit the nail on the head Captcha, because this industry as well as all economic systems flowing outward are moving to a point of inpass with humanity that only one will truly be able to move forward and remain in its current state unaltered. Perhaps not civil war, but an ecomonic war might loom on the horizon.

Edit: Forgive the verbosity. Been re-reading through Kafka and Nietzche for light summer reading and its leaving me more philosophical than usual.

 

[RandV80]

Many believe that Japanese developers trying to "westernize" their games in pursuit of larger profits are missing the point; That the unique, Japanese flavor is what attracted gamers to these games in the first place. If Matsuda is suggesting a system in which Japanese games are free to be Japanese rather than pale imitations of Western titles, that sounds great.

I gotta cheer for this part as well. The homogenized games market simply doesn't care for the type of games Squaresoft has historically made, and for those of us that do love those old games the Japanese quirkiness is part of the charm.

Though it makes me kind of worried that they may stop exporting some of their games, which is just downright stupid as well since while it may not be massive there's always a good size niche market for them. Look no further than Xenoblade and The Last Story on the Wii, with how much of a ***** it was to get NoA to release them over here.

 

[RaNDM G]

Glad to see a developer learning from their mistakes. Hopefully it's not too late for Square to turn their luck around.