Founded in 2011, Square Enix's Montreal branch was set to be a traditional gaming studio but in 2013, it pivoted to the mobile scene. If you own a smartphone, you might have come across some of their mobile adaptation of popular Square Enix franchises like Hitman, Lara Croft and Deus Ex with the Go suffix. These games have a board game flavor to them and were tailored for mobile gaming. However, despite their critical and financial success, the studio has announced that it will not be working on other Go games. One of the reason being that despite costing as little as $5, only a small number of people actually play the games.

Speaking to PCGamesInsider.biz, studio head Patrick Naud said that the premium mobile games market is becoming increasingly difficult to see success in:

You've got more and more high-quality free titles so there are even fewer and fewer people inclined to try something that will not be free. Despite the critical success and the great revenue we've had, it's sad to see that our games are only played by a small slither of the population because of the price point. That's such a big barrier for mobile users. A lot of people consume mobile games only and they have all these options, all these games; why should they invest money in this one unless they're very convinced?

That doesn't mean they won't spend in-game, but they want to spend on a game that they're sure they're going to like. The perception of choice makes it that even if it's only $5, that's too much.

Indeed, with recent console-quality games like PUBG and Fortnite hitting mobiles free-to-play, premium games might find it hard to thrive in the ever evolving mobile gaming market. As such studios investing in this market might need to adapt accordingly.

Naud said that Square Enix Montreal "still wants to innovate in the mobile space with new concepts" by "tailoring high-end, high-quality pristine mobile experiences", which he hopes will then become a standard for others to look up to. He also told VentureBeat that the focus will shift from premium to "taking the freemium approach in all of our next games".

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[FAST6191]

So the race to the bottom continues.

 

[The Real Jdbye]

So lower the price then. Squeenix has a long history of overpricing their mobile games. $5 is kind of on the high end for mobile games, $3 would be more average and would likely help sales a lot.
Their Final Fantasy etc ports are like $20... Squeenix just don't understand how mobile pricing works.

 

[RedoLane]

I guess you could say they let the idea.... GO away

 

[The Catboy]

I have no idea how I missed the GO games. I actually don't even recall them ever being advertised or talked about.

 

[VitaType]

They made bad (generic) mobile games and slapped the name of AAA gaming franchises on it. I'm happy that not enough gamers fall for it to justify to continue this crap.
A positive news.

 

[Axido]

So lower the price then. Squeenix has a long history of overpricing their mobile games. $5 is kind of on the high end for mobile games, $3 would be more average and would likely help sales a lot.
Their Final Fantasy etc ports are like $20... Squeenix just don't understand how mobile pricing works.

5 bucks is next to nothing. I don't see why this is already overpriced. I don't know what kind of (and how much) content one can expect from those GO games. If the game manages to feel like a full console experience (e.g. comparable to a full-priced Switch game), I wouldn't even mind it being 40 bucks or more. Not that I expect this to happen soon, but I wouldn't be against it.

 

[leon315]

So lower the price then. Squeenix has a long history of overpricing their mobile games. $5 is kind of on the high end for mobile games, $3 would be more average and would likely help sales a lot.
Their Final Fantasy etc ports are like $20... Squeenix just don't understand how mobile pricing works.

last time i bought some GO series mobile games they were 0.99€, dunno...

 

[Noctosphere]

I never really was hyped for Go games
Right now, I'm hyped for Shadow of the Tomb Raider

 

[VitaType]

If the game manages to feel like a full console experience (e.g. comparable to a full-priced Switch game), I wouldn't even mind it being 40 bucks or more.

Don't worry. The concept was mobile game cash grap, but at least made by real game designers. Which still is just far to simple mobile games but this time a great name slapped onto it. Here some in-game screenshots (just in case you're not aware they're from two different Go games )

 

[Metoroid0]

i want sonic go!

 

[Fusion]

I guess you could say they let the idea.... GO away

I too prefer they go away, as this games are just quick little games that should be no more then 99c.

At least the idea didn't GO to their head & make Go games out of all their IP's. Better direction to....well you know.

 

[The Real Jdbye]

5 bucks is next to nothing. I don't see why this is already overpriced. I don't know what kind of (and how much) content one can expect from those GO games. If the game manages to feel like a full console experience (e.g. comparable to a full-priced Switch game), I wouldn't even mind it being 40 bucks or more. Not that I expect this to happen soon, but I wouldn't be against it.

They're not exactly overpriced in this case, but like I said they're on the high end.

 

[anhminh]

Oh no, what will happen to Pokemon GO?

Joke aside, phone gaming market are one of the most toxic gaming market in gaming history. Freemium and mobage everywhere, at this point the only game that worth playing on smartphone are emulator.

 

[LightyKD]

I liked the "Go" games. They were like nifty little board games set in the world of each respective franchise. -oh well. Fun while it lasted.

 

[chirogan]

Produce good games and get paid.

Console gamers are hardcore and willing to pay.

Mobile users are generally casual users. Most are not willing to pay. They are childrens, fathers or mothers. Grandpa and grandma. Just looking for time passing games.

 

[SS4]

The gaming world sure is taking a turn for the pathetic as years go by . . .

 

[smileyhead]

Shame. I enjoyed Hitman GO. The others are probably good as well.

 

[KingVamp]

Guess F2P is going increasing be the pricing model for mobile games.

Also, yeah, it is pretty funny that this comes right after the announcement of the "Let's Go" games.

 

[Taleweaver]

However, despite their critical and financial success, the studio has announced that it will not be working on other Go games. One of the reason being that despite costing as little as $5, only a small number of people actually play the games.

Okay...can someone telle me how the hell do these two sentence make any sense? It sells for almost nothing to almost nobody, yet somehow still manages to succeed both financially and critically. How the hell does THAT work?

Or perhaps I should ask the question differently: how you you define success? From the interview (okay, and the OP itself) I get the impression that these Go-games were a cashgrab from the beginning. They were meant to raise awareness of the main brands. That's probably also why they play out pretty much exactly alike (I have all three, but only finished lara croft go*).

I'm not much of a fan of freemium, but at least they'll be forced to compete in a market where the consumer can pick what they like rather than what they're familiar with. The Go games weren't bad, but in terms of mechanics they weren't great. I mean...I can name a few (not much, but a few) android games which were both free and better quality.




*both hitman and deus ex had early levels which had you doing some weird 'move back and forth a bit' dance so your moves were in correct sync with guard patterns. This was pretty unintuitive, which directly makes the game more about guessing than actually planning or thinking...or at least that's how it came across to me.