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Square-Enix having rough financial year: time to pull out the FFVII remake? photo

Any Square fan (and some people who aren't fans) have had plenty to say lately about their new strategy of flooding the market with spinoffs and new concepts alike, feeling as if the company is taking a dramatically different turn from the calm focus they seemed to possess before merging with Enix.

Sqaure president Yoichi Wada commented to Reuters recently that the company needed "to go beyond traditional Square-Enix", and recent numbers have shed some light on the reason why. Per Gamespot:

Sales dropped 9.8 percent on the year to ¥147.5 billion ($1.4 billion)--a sharp contrast to last year's 31.3 percent gains, which grew revenue to ¥163.4 billion ($1.6 billion). While the publisher was able to curtail a precipitous slump in net income from a year ago, Square Enix still posted net income down 20.9 percent to ¥9.2 billion ($89 million).

The hardest hit was in overseas markets which, ironically, completely opposes Wada's comments about wanting to make 80 percent of the company sales about their overseas presence. What's the strategy then, with goals fallen so far by the wayside?  Square says they will focus strongly on research and development, with a special eye on "advanced information technologies". Hmm .. more cell phone games? Let's hope not.

Personally, this is no big shock to me -- the beloved Squaresoft of my youth is not the same company today. Change is fine, but I've felt uneasy about the dissolution of focus the company has seemed to suffer in the past few years. It makes me wonder if they might pull out that Final Fantasy VII remake just to compensate, which in my opinion would be the worst timing possible. Let's hope the waves caused by these losses force the RPG kings to consider some new approaches.


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60 comments | showing # 51 to 60

Scape's Avatar - Comment posted on 05/26/2008 23:15
Scape
I would welcome a FF7 remake with open arms, but I would rather them work on even better original titles.

Also, it is incredibly obvious that a remake is coming eventually. Every single game up to FF7 has been ported/remade in some way or another (FF3/4 DS, PS1 enhanced ports etc...).
Tet's Avatar - Comment posted on 05/27/2008 01:23
Tet
How about worrying less about fmv of your sexually confused trannies and more on story and gameplay?

And where's the Enix part? Where's my (good) Actraiser sequel you bunch of jackasses?
SunTzu's Avatar - Comment posted on 05/27/2008 02:29
SunTzu
You know what this is? Karma. They refuse to make a new Parasite Eve and Bushido Blade, and now they're suffering for it. I hope terrible, terrible things happen to this company. I hope it gets acquired by EA, and then forced to do nothing but expansion packs for every terrible MMO they releases.
JustLikeBuck's Avatar - Comment posted on 05/27/2008 03:23
JustLikeBuck
Perhaps its the constant rape of FFVIIs corpse that's causing so much difficulty. Perhaps it's time to do something other than a Final Fantasy game?

I know, why not try something original, new, and doesn't include 25+ hours of random battle encounters?
Tuxy's Avatar - Comment posted on 05/27/2008 07:32
Tuxy
So, Finaly Fantasy? Time to move on SE and raise your game.

That and bring FF13 to 360. Dude's gotta eat right? You're not gonna do that on PS3 audience alone.
Demtor's Avatar - Comment posted on 05/27/2008 09:40
Demtor
I think, and I'm just tossing it out there, that Squenix's biggest problem stateside is they don't really have a dialog with their non-Japanese fans. When was the last time you felt they ever listened to anything anyone over here ever had to say about their games. Answer: Never. They simply don't give a fuck. In the past, they didn't have to. Still don't really. But if they want to get a bigger piece of the American gaming pie that so many other RPG developers enjoy, then they need to understand the target audience and what they want or look for in RPGs.
Kiimu's Avatar - Comment posted on 05/27/2008 11:35
Kiimu
Like another commenter mentioned, what's up with Kingdom Hearts III? The second game was a big improvement over the first, and honestly, I'd like some real plot progression over these intermediate portable games (356/2 for the DS, Birth by Sleep for the PSP). The KH games have made the sales, appeal to the mainstream, and would be a new title rather than a remake—why not?
Novakaine's Avatar - Comment posted on 05/27/2008 12:40
Novakaine
@ Kiimu: Well, maybe the events of this console generation shell-shocked Square-Enix. I bet you they front-loaded everything onto the PS3 and are still reeling from the system being in the 360 and Wii's dust.

I don't think it's out of the question that Squeenix planned for not just FF XIII to be on PS3, but likely Kingdom Hearts 3 and Dragon Quest X as well (the DS's head-start on the consoles gave them a chance to opt for that one). They focused on FF XIII to come out first, and after seeing the developments of the system wars are unsure of what to do.

All just theory, but I don't see it being unreasonable to believe.
KyleGamgee's Avatar - Comment posted on 05/27/2008 14:08
KyleGamgee
I don't understand how this is a surprise. When Squeenix released on the PS2, they were working with the biggest market share. Last year the biggerst market share has been the Xbox 360. Where is their 360 game?
Dan CiTi's Avatar - Comment posted on 05/27/2008 15:10
Dan CiTi
The PS3 is destroying the 360 in Europe and Japan. So much for that 18 month lead.

Anyway, I'd rather see Chrono Trigger HD and FFVI HD than FFVII remade.
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