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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

#71

Post by baisq »

skhr0680 wrote: post #48
crate_barre wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Maybe it’s just my filter bubble but for years Sony had such good marketing that I knew their flagship games and random facts about their consoles even when I didn’t own them myself. I couldn’t tell you a single game on the PS5. I don’t know about other countries, but it’s like they’re not even trying in Japan

GTA Online ;)

Even today it is hard to buy a PS5. So, no wonder they aren't pushing it that hard.

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

#72

Post by smcl »

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.

It's true that you can make an immersive-sim without the "Deus Ex" title, but over the course of four games they've built a sort of cohesive universe and storyline and many people - myself included - would really like to revisit that universe. DXHR and DXMD weren't the same as the original, but I didn't get the feeling that they were trying to reproduce it. I think they wanted to do a sort something in the same style but in a way that appealed to a broader group of people, so it was necessarily simplified (and hamstrung further by being the first game the studio made, the Eidos/Squenix turmoil and finally the rush to deliver).

HBomberguy's video hammered on a few points to deliberately make it seem more stupid than it was, and he knows it because he pulls back and calls the game "fine". I have a fairly unique perspective on this because by pure chance I'd played through all the Deus Ex games in the months before the HBG video dropped so I had an extremely fresh perspective on it. I'd also played through the original Deus Ex as a kid so I got to experience it when it was new and shiny. The video is very careful about emphasising DXHR's weak points while downplaying or ignoring many of the original's issues (or flat-out lying about them). The latter two entries in the series were troubled for sure, but they were more than "fine".

Edit: Actually I just remembered I wrote up a list of issues with the review because my friends were talking it and I wanted to share them in a way that didn't blast a wall of text in the group chat. So just in case you're curious what specifically I meant you can check it out here (content warning: I am a bit sweary) https://gist.github.com/smcl/666a0156b13d7a681e0378b836b36e4...

Edit 2: Oops I am a liar actually, I didn't play Invisible War :-O

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

#73

Post by robonerd »

bennysomething wrote: post #41
ineedasername wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 chan…

One of the ex rare Goldeneye Devs said in an interview that the N64 not having a cd drive lost them that generation. I think he's probably mostly right. Cartridges were not only an anti piracy move, it saved on cost of console manufacturing (the N64 was still sold at a loss). As you point out N64 games were originally a lot more expensive than playstation games. Also Nintendo were really restrictive with who could de…

The N64 controller did Nintendo no favors, particularly with games like Goldeneye. The original playstation controller didn't stand the test of time either, but once the analog sticks were added it became an instant classic.

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

#74

Post by DashAnimal »

gundamdoubleO wrote: post #22

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

Heh. This is not to call you out because I absolutely did the same up until last week (and I'm certain a high percentage of others are the same). I've recently decided to make it a habit of reading articles first (directly from the publisher website) before even visiting Hacker News or Reddit. And after you do that, you start to realize how much discussion is based entirely around headlines.

Anyway, from the article:

And shortly after the announcement went live, Eidos Montreal confirmed in an Embracer conference call that its next major game would be set in the world of Deus Ex

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

#75

Post by trey-jones »

bennysomething wrote: post #41
ineedasername wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 chan…

One of the ex rare Goldeneye Devs said in an interview that the N64 not having a cd drive lost them that generation. I think he's probably mostly right. Cartridges were not only an anti piracy move, it saved on cost of console manufacturing (the N64 was still sold at a loss). As you point out N64 games were originally a lot more expensive than playstation games. Also Nintendo were really restrictive with who could de…

Somehow the pros of N64 carts (mainly loading times and onboard game saves) were never really talked about. I had an N64 (which I purchased together with Goldeneye circa 1997). I can remember a feeling of thinking I had made a mistake because PS1 seemed much bigger and I had a feeling that it must have been better. But looking back, I feel like N64 had the better set of games. But maybe that's just because it's what I know. Honestly Goldeneye and Perfect Dark were probably enough to win that war all by themselves in my mind, but Mario Kart, Mario 64, Smash Bros, and Star Fox also got a lot of play time from me.

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

#76

Post by smcl »

bilekas wrote: post #42
baby wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Nier is easily one of my all time favorites and as much as I try and get friends to play it, it's so hard to explain what kind of game and experience it really is. A great piece of art.

I bought it and got distracted by other games without playing it yet, I need to get back to it! Mostly was inspired by the Consolevania review (which had a truly bizarre opening minute that you might enjoy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8jeEwL9QUM)

edit: I rewatched the review now I totally get why I picked it up, Ryan's enthusiasm is absolutely hilarious and infectious ("It's just perfect as I've ever seen you can ride a fucking boar in it")

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

#77

Post by mrtranscendence »

smoldesu wrote: post #67
kmlx wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The newer tomb raider games are the most AAA games I’ve ever seen uncharted, horizon, god of war, last of us etc

I've never really liked those franchises, even though they do have AAA production value behind them. Uncharted and God of War in particular just feel like button-pressing simulators to me; they feel like 8 hour long cutscenes with a few QTEs and points where you can wiggle your joystick. Maybe I'm just spoiled by gameplay-heavy titles as of late, but a lot of Sony franchises feel like they'd be better as movies inste…

I've never played Uncharted, but I had a much different God of War experience from what you described. There's really quite a lot of gameplay there, and some of the optional combat encounters were ridiculously tough -- certainly not QTE-ridden cutscenes. Some of the puzzles were repetitive and there was certainly quite a lot of dialog, but I never felt like I was in a button-pressing simulator.

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

#78

Post by Reubachi »

ianbutler wrote: post #61

Pretty please can we have the final installment of the Adam Jensen Deus Ex trilogy now. Left us hanging in the middle of what might be one of my favorite neo noir, cyberpunk series because open world story driven games were losing out back then. There's clearly an appetite now given recent releases and their success.

I think Deus Ex is done. A finish to the Jensen story would rely upon Eidos Montreal being able to produce more than one game every 5 years. Since Mankind Divided, they've released only a Guardians of the Galaxy game.

MD was a great game, which was according to Eidos Montreal kneecapped by "Square rushing it out". Human Revolution was an even greater game, but still slightly kneecapped by "Square rushing it out".

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

#79

Post by ineedasername »

bennysomething wrote: post #41
ineedasername wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 chan…

One of the ex rare Goldeneye Devs said in an interview that the N64 not having a cd drive lost them that generation. I think he's probably mostly right. Cartridges were not only an anti piracy move, it saved on cost of console manufacturing (the N64 was still sold at a loss). As you point out N64 games were originally a lot more expensive than playstation games. Also Nintendo were really restrictive with who could de…

What was the dream team thing? I'm not familiar with that.

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

#80

Post by mrtranscendence »

robonerd wrote: post #69
levesque wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

You're not alone. These sort of games offer very little opportunity for players to creatively express themselves. This is more like watching a movie than playing a game.

It can be fun to express yourself, and some games get plenty of mileage out of offering people various opportunities to do just that. But sometimes you want to "play" a movie, and there's not necessarily anything wrong with that. I had a lot of fun with the Tomb Raider games despite the lack of creative expression -- the mechanics were fun, the story was dumb but entertaining, and there was a lot of spectacle to soak up. I don't need to engage every part of my brain all the time.
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