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Square-Enix sells all of its Western game studios and their games to Embracer

arstechnica.com

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Re: Square-Enix sells all of its Western game studios and their games to Embracer

#31

Post by ineedasername »

crate_barre wrote: post #11
oneoff786 wrote: post #4

The newer tomb raider games are the most AAA games I’ve ever seen. Not saying they’re good, or bad, but every other moment is a handcrafted moment. It sort of works. A lot of it is platforming through crumbling environments. Which is pretty cool. It’s sort of overdone too. SquareEnix felt legendary growing up.

It was believed Square’s choice to put Final Fantasy on PlayStation killed the Sega Saturn, and dented N64 adoption. But this is console war mythos, not sure if anyone really dug into it. The power of Square once upon a time may have been truly legendary, but who knows for sure?

Cartridge price played a big part for N64. MSRP for new games was about $60 compared to most PS1 games @ $50. Worse, retailers often marked them up a lot, which didn't seem to happen for PS1 games. I'm pretty sure I paid $80 for Ocarina of Time, while I snagged FFVII for the $50 MSRP. And IIRC price drops were pretty rare, especially for 1st party games. (Still true today).

It made me much less willing to take a chance on a games I might not like. These days with Steam I can at least see if I hate the game immediately and return it, so much better from that perspective. Of course I can resell when I'm done, which is less good.

Re: Square-Enix sells all of its Western game studios and their games to Embracer

#32

Post by newsclues »

TillE wrote: post #29
gundamdoubleO wrote: post #22

Hopefully a new Deus Ex game might be a possibility again.

The thing about Deus Ex is that there's nothing particularly special about the "IP". Anybody could make a near-future cyberpunk conspiracy-oriented immersive sim, and call it whatever. The modern Deus Ex games were really average, and (as detailed in the recent hbomberguy video) failed to grasp the key principles of level design that are required to make games like that work.

And yet cyberpunk and watch dogs aren’t close to being the same despite the similar aesthetic/theme.

Re: Square-Enix sells all of its Western game studios and their games to Embracer

#34

Post by baby »

haunter wrote: post #18

>The Transaction will assist the Company in adapting to the changes underway in the global business environment by establishing a more efficient allocation of resources, which will enhance corporate value by accelerating growth in the Company’s core businesses in the digital entertainment domain. In addition, the Transaction enables the launch of new businesses by moving forward with investments in fields including b…

I think a lot of their games are really niche too. Nier is definitely not for everyone.

Re: Square-Enix sells all of its Western game studios and their games to Embracer

#35

Post by baby »

oneoff786 wrote: post #4

The newer tomb raider games are the most AAA games I’ve ever seen. Not saying they’re good, or bad, but every other moment is a handcrafted moment. It sort of works. A lot of it is platforming through crumbling environments. Which is pretty cool. It’s sort of overdone too. SquareEnix felt legendary growing up.

Then you should play uncharted and the last of us. This is peak AAA

Re: Square-Enix sells all of its Western game studios and their games to Embracer

#36

Post by halfmatthalfcat »

mywittyname wrote: post #28
pavlov wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Investments in blockchain, AI, and the cloud" sounds like they have absolutely no idea what they should do, and will spend most of the money paying very expensive consultants who produce delirious slideware about web3 metaverse opportunities.

I think that's just pandering. The markets expect to hear this line and will punish the stocks of tech companies that don't show some kind of investments into this kind of stuff. They'll make some NFT-based card game with advanced self-learning AI opponents just to tick all the right boxes.

Why? Because enough VCs/Hedge Funds have bought into the lie that is crypto or “AI”. Is this some kind of economic extortion?

Re: Square-Enix sells all of its Western game studios and their games to Embracer

#37

Post by falcolas »

bovermyer wrote: post #30
haunter wrote: post #18

>The Transaction will assist the Company in adapting to the changes underway in the global business environment by establishing a more efficient allocation of resources, which will enhance corporate value by accelerating growth in the Company’s core businesses in the digital entertainment domain. In addition, the Transaction enables the launch of new businesses by moving forward with investments in fields including b…

In the noclip documentary on FFXIV a few years back, Yoshida mentioned that he was considering leaving Square-Enix to make his own games. FFXIV is really good, but Yoshida is the soul of that game. If he left, that would be devastating. If you haven't seen the noclip documentary, you should. It's on YouTube.

He has since stated that he won't leave FFXIV. Has re-iterated it in the face of the 6.0 launch, since 6.0 wrapped up the main storyline and there were fears of his departure following that.

Re: Square-Enix sells all of its Western game studios and their games to Embracer

#38

Post by levesque »

baby wrote: post #35
oneoff786 wrote: post #4

The newer tomb raider games are the most AAA games I’ve ever seen. Not saying they’re good, or bad, but every other moment is a handcrafted moment. It sort of works. A lot of it is platforming through crumbling environments. Which is pretty cool. It’s sort of overdone too. SquareEnix felt legendary growing up.

Then you should play uncharted and the last of us. This is peak AAA

Am I the only one that can't stand these games? They are so restrictive in their gameplay, so linear! It feels like watching an interactive movie more than playing a game.

Re: Square-Enix sells all of its Western game studios and their games to Embracer

#39

Post by Arrath »

tenebrisalietum wrote: post #19
swarnie wrote: post #10

I'd be interesting to see the full list of IP they've sold. The article only gives three examples, one game I've never heard of, one recycled shooter from the 2000s and then there is Tomb raider - a series with twenty instalments, already milked to dust for pre-sequels, squeals and reboots more times then seems fair. Clearly someone thinks they can squeeze a few more dollars out of people here but personally im not s…

VR Tomb Raider would be neat.

Ah yes I can look down and see the branch sticking out of my stomach, or the bear trap around my ankle.

Re: Square-Enix sells all of its Western game studios and their games to Embracer

#40

Post by paulryanrogers »

TillE wrote: post #29
gundamdoubleO wrote: post #22

Hopefully a new Deus Ex game might be a possibility again.

The thing about Deus Ex is that there's nothing particularly special about the "IP". Anybody could make a near-future cyberpunk conspiracy-oriented immersive sim, and call it whatever. The modern Deus Ex games were really average, and (as detailed in the recent hbomberguy video) failed to grasp the key principles of level design that are required to make games like that work.

Hard disagree. While newer DX games are simpler and more accesible in some ways they are still great playgrounds. Old games may have had fewer loading screens but their jank wasn't worth some of the more subtle bits that weren't carried forward.
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