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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

#221

Post by johnnyanmac »

needle0 wrote: post #212
sascha_sl wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

The enthusiast gamer market is a bit too laser focused on AAA video games at times. They do make console games, but the only ones that give the slight time of day to are PES (or some remasters of games they already like).

I believe most of it is frustrated Metal Gear, Castlevania, or Silent Hill fans. Maybe even some old school Suikoden fans.

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

#222

Post by johnnyanmac »

jimmyjazz14 wrote: post #103
fxtentacle wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You have pretty much summarized what I liked about the new Tomb Raider: It's kinda linear, so you just go with the flow.

That's what I hate about it, its like a bad interactive movie. I also feel like the new Tomb Raiders focus way to much on combat and almost none on exploring.

exploring with modern AAA assets is hard, and sandbox style games like Elder Scrolls or GTA take a huge hit in both graphical fidelity and level design to facilitate that (okay, maybe not GTA V, but it's a "console game" with an MMO built into it. The profit margins on it are incomparable).

I imagine that that may have been a huge grind to the people at Eidos who were once at the top of their games in terms of visual fidelity. Sacrifice that exploratory feel but still achieve best in class graphics like the old days

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

#223

Post by johnnyanmac »

didibus wrote: post #154

That's interesting and hopefully for the best. Square always did best Japanese style games, and maybe this lets them focus more on what they're good at. Eidos is such a good game studio, but I feel Square was just not letting them shine. Crystal Dynamics is also pretty descent, but that Avengers game what the hell happened? I think they're just not the right studio for a game like that. Now I don't know much about Em…

There's so many hands in the pudding of avengers between SE, Crystal, Marvel, and Disney, and so many industry fluctuations that there's probably no one party at blame. These were dealings happening right at the crux of when Games as a Service was hitting full swing, during production Infinity War became a cultural phenomenon on top of the already existing cultural phenomenon, the fan reaction to the initial avenger faces, a revolving door of talent during production, And ofc some COVID to throw everything in disarray in the 11th hour, but still needing _something_ to take advantadge of the software surge as the movies were being delayed.

it's a perfect storm of business meddling and plain ol' unfortunate circumstance. At this point, I'm just baffled by how lucky Insomiac was to basically time everything just right while under 80% of the same conditions.

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

#224

Post by johnnyanmac »

CodeArtisan wrote: post #134

Executives at Square-Enix have been saying for >ten years now that video gaming consoles and AAA games are getting less and less interesting to them, especially in Japan.

really? their investment and financials seem to suggest that they are more interested than ever in AAA games.

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

#225

Post by johnnyanmac »

Sakos wrote: post #193
houli wrote: post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nomura has been around since at least FF5, and Kitase before that. Long before the Enix merger

Yes, but it's only after Sakaguchi left (and with the SE merger) that they had full creative and management control of the big Japanese projects. The FF13 era was a massive disaster and they've never really recovered from that. Nomura was literally just a monster designer on FF5. I have no idea how it's relevant that he was the monster designer on FF5 to what he's done to the company in a leadership role in the past…

>The FF13 era was a massive disaster and they've never really recovered from that.

I think they've recovered from that for at least 6 years now, minimum

>I have no idea how it's relevant that he was the monster designer on FF5 to what he's done to the company in a leadership role in the past 20 years.

well first of all, we're talking about Japan. Seniority trumps a lot of things over there, and Nomura being around for longer than 99% of the company would give him a lot of sway regardless of his named role.

But even leaving that aside, being the creative force behind a major franchise that bolstered the relationship with one of the most powerful companies on earth would get you some sway in any company. Even so, he's not necessarily the end all be all behind any grievances you may have with Square Enix. He's ultiamtely a director first and businessman 10th.

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

#226

Post by johnnyanmac »

ddingus wrote: post #124

Man, I just want more of tye big world FF 7 through 12 type games. Anyone doing titles like that anymore? My wife and I really enjoy a big one and will play one all the way through. Miss that type of experience. The MMO is completely uninteresting and addictive as hell from what I see can happen to players.

>Anyone doing titles like that anymore?

in what way? A huge sprawling turned based JRPG experience, or a big-budget Japanese-style game with a more "universally resonant" style of dialouge and narrative?

If you don't mind some indie jank, Light fairytale[1] is very much a fan's attempt to capture that FF7 feel in the modern day. And then there's Edge of Eternity[2] that tries to do the same with an ff10/12 feel. if you want something more AAA, Yakuza Like a Dragon has that sense of exploration and scope while being a turned based game (but the tone is completely different).

For the latter: well, Sakaguchi still makes games, and his latest one on IOS called Fantasian has been getting praise. Lost Oddessy is an older, Xbox only title that more or less feels like "what if Sakaguchi made his own version of FF13?". not in a thematic sense, but more in the fact that this was a big budget HD game that feels like it was cut from the same cloth as FF12. The downside of his post Square games is the platform availability.

[1]:https://store.steampowered.com/app/539330/Light_Fairytale_Ep... [2]: https://store.steampowered.com/app/269190/Edge_Of_Eternity/

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

#227

Post by lumost »

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.

The most distressing aspect of the current bull run has to be that it's difficult to point to concrete examples/products that use the best buzzwords.

Web3? Show me an application which isn't just trying to sell some other crypto scam. Why can't I know simply access a web 3.0 web page, is the web 3 not the web?

AI? I see lots of ML in products these days, but calling it AI is ... extreme. Products that look like they could match the description are relatively far from commercial viability.

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

#228

Post by johnnyanmac »

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…

>I'd be interesting to see the full list of IP they've sold.

well, here's a start: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Eidos_Interactive_game...

Apparently the only IP's SE definitely kept was Just Cause and Life is Strange

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

#229

Post by derefr »

halfmatthalfcat wrote: post #36
mywittyname wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

More like a race to the bottom. If everyone else is e.g. using Bahamian tax shelters, and your company explicitly states that it won't do that, then your company's stock price will go down, because the market predicts that without those "table stakes", your company is not going to be competitive with all the companies who are willing to do that. (Whether that's true or not is irrelevant; it's only about whether the market believes it's true.)
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