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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

#211

Post by vvanders »

elif wrote: post #207
kevingadd wrote: post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Veteran game developer here: What makes "ai" and "the cloud" obvious areas of research for a next generation game developer? Games have had "AI" for decades and we've had neural net hardware on GPUs for years and years now which gets used for things like upscaling, global illumination, etc. "the cloud" has been available for ages and games already use cloud hosting extensively where it makes sense. All I see here are…

"games have had ai for decades and the cloud has existed for years" is not a reason why research in those areas is pointless. Your failure to, as you admit, see these topics as anything other than "buzzwords" all but confirms my original opinion of a cultural skepticism.

I don't think the OP said those things were pointless, only that they are already actively used in industry standard approaches.

FWIW I agree with the assessment, the terms are broad, generic and have no specific connotation for gamedev. It's not oriented at anyone in industry since you'd talk about specifics and not the "cloud", "ai", or "blockchain".

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

#212

Post by needle0 »

sascha_sl wrote: post #44
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…

Pivoting further into gambling utilizing their IP has worked reasonably well for Konami.

People in the west seem to have become oblivious to the fact that Konami still makes games (and yes, by that I mean traditional video games)-- just that most of their library has become invisible from the POV of the west. Games like Momotaro Dentetsu and Pawapuro are doing plenty well in Japan.

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

#213

Post by dleslie »

jameshart wrote: post #176
TillE wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> Anybody could make a near-future cyberpunk conspiracy-oriented immersive sim Pretty sure CD Projekt disproved that theory

The cyberpunk game that covered its expenses, made a profit, and is slated to receive DLC was made by a studio that disproved that theory how, exactly?

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

#215

Post by kevin_thibedeau »

trey-jones wrote: post #81
robonerd wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

The controller was weird then and is even weirder in hindsight but as I recall: 1. This was the first console controller with any analog stick at all. 2. Goldeneye, though it controls differently to modern shooters, was an excellent use of the single stick at the time. You could also use dual sticks by using two controllers at once - groundbreaking! 3. The Z-button was the first trigger-style button on console contro…

> This was the first console controller with any analog stick at all.

Atari 5200 beat them there.

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

#216

Post by johnnyanmac »

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…

> but for every single good one I swear they make 3 utter shite too

That describes almost all AAA companies. I think Square takes more heat on this point because they are some of the few studios still investing heavily in the "AA" market. Outside of Avengers, most of the other projects people may point to aren't really the highest budget games to begin with. And those rough releases are something most other studios don't want to risk anymore.

> + their gacha games are not even that good considering the saturation on the gacha market and what quality games some other companies can make (see Genshin)

I mean, the entire market is trying to chase Genshin right now. It's a very arguable point that no mobile game released as of now is as good as Genshin, at least on a technical level.

I understand why. The attraction of mobile is running a relatively low budget (say, "A/AA" level) project and having it profit for a few years until they need to recycle the assets into a new project. A game like Genshin is the equivalent of trying to put GTA V on a phone. Which may be technically feasible now, in 2022, but it'd get you laughed out of a pitch in 2017 or so when Genshin started development

Remember, this would have been right before the Switch launched and had Breath of the Wild show what an ARM architecture was capable of rendering. Most other studios are too risk averse to consider such an endeavor. Console developers especially because they don't want to cannabalize their games with something that plays too closely to their $60 AAA blockbuster.

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

#217

Post by johnnyanmac »

kevingadd wrote: post #205
elif wrote: post #202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those seem like obvious areas of research for a next generation game developer. Perhaps you are overreacting because of a culturally normative skepticism toward the word "Blockchain"

Veteran game developer here: What makes "ai" and "the cloud" obvious areas of research for a next generation game developer? Games have had "AI" for decades and we've had neural net hardware on GPUs for years and years now which gets used for things like upscaling, global illumination, etc. "the cloud" has been available for ages and games already use cloud hosting extensively where it makes sense. All I see here are…

For AI, it's mostly machine learning that's attractive today. physically based animation will probably be the next big breakthrough to finally reign in the increasingly burdensome costs of asset production. It's been around for years in various white papers, but it's only recently starting to show up in commercial products.

Cloud is simply what it is in other media: having your device be a thin client that the developers/hardware manufacturers deliver your media to. I know it's a thorny topic for enthusiasts, but it's very likely in 2 decades' time that most players won't be using a dedicated console nor gaming computer to play AAA games. "Netflix of Gaming" is too attractive a title in this multibillion dollar industry to not pursue.

Square Enix may not be looking to host those games, but it's had this tech around for a while and probably wouldn't mind being a middleman: https://www.destructoid.com/project-flare-square-enixs-cloud...

>so it's questionable whether the cost of moving into blockchain is reasonable for a company like Square Enix that can already rake it in via microtransactions.

TBF Square Enix's MO for the last 30+ years is to try and be on the cutting edge as a market leader. It may not make financial sense, but they've constantly made huge gambles. Some paying off huge, some bombing hard, and a few almost bankrupting the company.

As an engine programmer, I can't help but admire the ambition in an age where so many studios seem to instead rely on Unity or Epic to leverage that for them. But it also makes me wonder how long until the company flies too close to the Sun.

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

#218

Post by johnnyanmac »

brendoelfrendo wrote: post #167
jrsj wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When you zoom out a little it makes a lot of sense. FF15 and FF13 were both failures, company had serious financial issues before FF14 took off. Hopefully you will get to enjoy FF16, and making that game wouldn’t have been possible without the success of 14. FFXIV also has the least addictive qualities of any MMO I have played in my experience. There’s very little FOMO & you’re encouraged to play at whatever pace you…

I wouldn't call FF13 or FF15 failures from a sales point of view; they both performed strongly. From a "brand damage" point of view, though, they were catastrophic. I think the development of FF16 speaks for itself: they gave the development of a mainline single-player title to Creative Business Unit III, their FF14 studio, because they have a rep for making consistently good content and delivering it on time. Meanwh…

> they gave the development of a mainline single-player title to Creative Business Unit III, their FF14 studio, because they have a rep for making consistently good content and delivering it on time.

I think it's simply because the other CBU's are swamped with work.

- The old business division (what they called Creative Business units before the restructure 5 years ago) that made FF15 split off into Luminous Studios, and went straight from FF15 DLC into Forspoken

- CBU1 (AKA, the Nomura division) handles FF7R as well as Kingdom Hearts. Two huge franchises. Adding another FF onto the pile would be overwhelming

- CBU2 is "The Bravely division". I wouldn't be surprised if they get to try their own hand at a Final Fantasy one day, but it would have been too early for FF16. FF16 was likely being worked on before Octopath Traveler.

- CBU4 was always a smaller sort of "spinoff" studio. Nowadays they focus more on the mobile market. Very little chance they were ever considered.

I don't think Square Enix sees the last few FF games as damaging as fans do. They simply have a lot of work and some teams have more or less room for that work.

Funnily enough, it may be a possibility of FF17 having a mobile client given Genshin's success, but this is just random conjecture

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

#219

Post by telman17 »

brendoelfrendo wrote: post #172
henriquecm8 wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They release two games, Guardians of the Galaxy and Shadow of Tomb Raider. And helped with Avengers.

Yeah, neither of which were small games, for the record; SotTR was a huge effort, if not the high point of the new TR games. And Guardians of the Galaxy was well-received, and even won a Game Award for best narrative (I won't comment on the relevance of awards shows; let's just call it "peer recognition" for their efforts). Guardians also failed to meet Square's sales expectations, though Square is notoriously hard t…

SotTR was a huge effort, but probably the weakest of the reboot trilogy narrative-wise.

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

#220

Post by hnick »

inopinatus wrote: post #203
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.

The market and real estate systems in FF14 are indicative that Square Enix's creative units either have no idea whatsoever about how economies work, or no interest in making theirs fit for purpose. Their efforts in this direction are easily derided as painfully limited, crude, naive, and dysfunctional, certainly one of the least well designed aspects of the experience. This stands in stark contrast to the thoughtful,…

FFXI had a better economy, but it comes down to the fact they don't seem to want money to matter in FFXIV. The game hands it out like free candy but it's only really worthwhile on cosmetics unless you buy into day 1 gear. Couple that with vertical gear progression and nothing is exciting - it's all the same items with different names and higher numbers. I'm not sure how they can even improve it with the game being how it is.

Housing is another matter, they mention server strain but given their past comments on what is and isn't possible (like showing what items you own), coupled with their terrible netcode, I'm inclined to not trust them on this one. As you say they are great at the game side of things, but seem to struggle with the tech side.

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