Square Enix Montreal To Stop Making 'Go' Mobile Games
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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