Square-Enix Admits They Made A Mistake

[Hyro-Sama]

After the recent and shocking success of Bravely Default in overseas markets, Square-Enix's current president Yosuke Matsuda shared in an interview (Translated by Siliconera) that the company would " go back to their roots" and focus on making their games pander more to their respective core audiences. Don't believe me? See below for an excerpt from the interview.

“The development team for Hitman: Absolution really struggled in this regard. They implemented a vast amount of ‘elements for the mass’ instead of for the core fans, as a way to try getting as many new players possible. It was a strategy to gain mass appeal. However, what makes the Hitman series good is its appeal to core gamers, and many fans felt the lack of focus in that regard, which ended up making it struggle in sales.”


“So, as for the AAA titles we’re currently developing for series, we basically want to go back to their roots and focus on the core audience, while working hard on content that can have fans say things like ‘this is the Hitman, we know’. I believe that is the best way for our development studios to display their strengths.”

So there you have it. The fans voted with their wallets and Square-Enix listened. Huzzah! Generic JRPGs and rose-coloured glasses for everyone!

Siliconera

 

[Jayro]

Final Fantasy 13 was everything I had hoped it would be, so fuck the haters. The game was bad-ass, and a great first entry for the Final Fantasy franchise on the PS3 system.

 

[Foxi4]

Wait, what? But "Hitman: Absolution" was an excellent game. It took everything that was good about the original and added a nice flair of fast-paced action between the assassination missions, I thoroughly enjoyed it and I think it's one of the best games in the series. Square Enix often screws up, but "Hitman: Absolution" was not one of their screw-ups.

Final Fantasy 13 was everything I had hoped it would be, so fuck the haters. The game was bad-ass, and a great first entry for the Final Fantasy franchise on the PS3 system.

That is all.

 

[Black-Ice]

Final Fantasy 13 was everything I had hoped it would be, so fuck the haters. The game was bad-ass, and a great first entry for the Final Fantasy franchise on the PS3 system.

You, me and FF XIII against the world brother.
Lightning represent.

 

[weavile001]

You, me and FF XIII against the world brother.
Lightning represent.

Count me in \o/!
I hope that Square decides to make more Traditional-Turn-Based RPGs , There´s almost none for Home Consoles...

 

[Celice]

I just find it funny as fuck that they've both turned the Final Fantasy project from group-projects into pet projects for the director, and also that they've fist-fucked Lightning as their mascot in, like, almost every FF game since, not because people genuinely care about her, but because if they can market a recognizable figure, then that must mean people will buy whatever she's in, right?

 

[Nathan Drake]

Something Square Enix has completely ignored: the platform and timing of release.

The 3DS has an incredible lack of third party content, a common problem with Nintendo platforms in the past 15 years or so. The 3DS has also been going through a bit of a dry period, where new, quality releases have been sparse at best, with most of them being far too short to sustain a gamer until the next release. Put both of these factors together, and a time sink RPG is exactly what will sell well. Offer a starving person food, and it doesn't need to be gourmet for them to eat it up. That is to say that Bravely Default wasn't even necessarily a stellar release, or even what people truly wanted, but it was what was needed at the time.

Basically, changing your core business strategy based on a single release is silly.

 

[Hyro-Sama]

Sheesh. Ya post one picture of Lightning and everyone loses their minds. Holy shit.

 

[AngryGeek416]

13 sucked so hard it's not even cool, i hope they truly go back to the basics. Bravery default style on a home console.

 

[Langin]

13 FTW! <3 I seriously liked FF XIII...

 

[DiscostewSM]

Something Square Enix has completely ignored: the platform and timing of release.

The 3DS has an incredible lack of third party content, a common problem with Nintendo platforms in the past 15 years or so. The 3DS has also been going through a bit of a dry period, where new, quality releases have been sparse at best, with most of them being far too short to sustain a gamer until the next release. Put both of these factors together, and a time sink RPG is exactly what will sell well. Offer a starving person food, and it doesn't need to be gourmet for them to eat it up. That is to say that Bravely Default wasn't even necessarily a stellar release, or even what people truly wanted, but it was what was needed at the time.

Basically, changing your core business strategy based on a single release is silly.

Sounds like it's high time they support the Wii U.

 

[AngryGeek416]

13 FTW! <3 I seriously liked FF XIII...

it makes me sad you're standards are so low...13 was utter crap. I refuse to even keep it in my collection which includes every other FF game besides 13 and it's thoughtless money grabbing sequels.

 

[Kalker3]

Sheesh. Ya post one picture of Lightning and everyone loses their minds. Holy shit.

It looks like... ...people can't handle lightning.

Yeah, I know it's a shitty pun, but hey, I tried.

 

[tbgtbg]

Wow, you guys must've played the PS3 version, because I played the 360 version and it was a terrible game.

 

[CompassNorth]

I doubt they will change their ways.
Seems like the typical PR "we care about our fans, we'll be great again" speech to me.

Although feel free to prove me wrong SE and bring DQ7 overseas.

 

[Hyro-Sama]

Wow, you guys must've played the PS3 version, because I played the 360 version and it was a terrible game.

I'm fairly sure both versions are equally shit.

 

[Guild McCommunist]

FFXIII was not a shining piece of work but pandering to their old demographic with dated RPGs is far from a good solution.

If they could, y'know, create something that's actually new and not shit it would be cool.

 

[Gahars]

"A" mistake?

I'm so glad you're feeling penitent, Squeenix, but you better get cozy because we've got a lot to go through.

 

[PolloDiablo]

Final Fantasy VI-2 confirmed

 

[DeadPixelMan]

This reminds me of Capcom and how they need to go back to their roots regarding the Resident Evil series...... the arguments are very similar some like the old while other like the new.......to me everything up until RE4 was excellent but from RE4 on the series was complete shit. but then you get these new people who only played from 4 and absolutely love it...i don't get it re4,5,6 and so on where horse shit.