But will be expanding more into mobile, tablet and online titles
Square Enix has been a bit of a Negative Nancy this year, specifically when it’s come to sales. Although it shifted quite a few copies of Sleeping Dogs, Hitman Absolution, and Tomb Raider, as well as garnering quite a bit of critical success to boot, it’s been in the doldrums thanks to the company’s ludicrous expectations.
Despite Square Enix’s moping in regards to sales, and its continuing expansion into the mobile gaming market, US and Europe CEO Phil Rogers is attempting to allay fears that the company will cut its PC and console losses and run in a blog post clarifying the future of the company.
There’s a bit of fluff, like “[T]oday we devote most of our time and effort into developing new and rich gameplay experiences, worlds and characters.” But the gist is that Square Enix is still working on plenty of PC and console titles. “I can categorically say that we’re not abandoning core, triple-A console and PC games,” Rogers confirms. Then he lists a bunch of games we already know about, like Kingdom Hearts 3, Final Fantasy XV, and the Tomb Raider sequel, the latter of which is already “well into development.”
Rogers also clarifies Square Enix’s “new and evolved strategy,” which can best be described as doing a little bit of everything. “We plan to share a fuller title release plan with you soon on games ranging from next-gen blockbusters (the above mentioned Tomb Raider sequel) to new cutting-edge tablet and mobile games (such as the recently released Deus Ex: The Fall), to live and online PC games (our now in beta Heroes & Generals).”
A spot of restructuring has also been embarked upon, according to Rogers, with studio heads being given more time to focus on games. “We’ve taken away administrative duties from studio heads, so they get closer to the games, gameplay and gamers with fewer distractions. We’ve made these changes to all of our studios in the Americas and Europe and we believe this will improve not only the quality of our games, but also improve the time between releases.”
It’s not a particularly enlightening read, but communication and transparency can only engender people towards Square Enix
A note from Phil Rogers, CEO [Square Enix Blog]
