Square-Enix Wants U.S. Publishing Partner
Due to the PlayStation 3's less than stellar sales, Square-Enix's senior vice president, Michihiro Sasaki, said it is important to "raise overseas sales to 50 percent of overall revenues within three years." From GameSpot via the Times:
"We need to seek co-operation with a US publisher," Sasaki said. "Our strength is in role-playing games and fantasy titles, so it is a bit difficult to appeal to the US market." He went on to bemoan the fact that the US and Canadian markets are dominated by action games, such as the preordained blockbuster Halo 3.
Reportedly, the company is looking to become more involved in casual games and MMOs (FF XI need not be repeated). Sasaki went on to tell the Times that they are worried about the sales of the PS3. It's widely known that it still trails both the Xbox 360 and the Nintendo Wii. In addition to that, Square-Enix's only available next-generation game is Final Fantasy XI for Xbox 360 which, "according to the NPD Group," has sold 174,000 copies in the U.S.
Square-Enix has a lot riding on the PS3 with a slew of Final Fantasy XIII and Versus XIII games on the way. If the install base for the PS3 does not grow when those games come out, I imagine Square will be forced to look to other consoles to stay profitable. I love Square, always have, even since the days of Rad Racer (that's right, I said it). Hell, three of my top five favorite games ever are Square games (Chrono Trigger on the SNES/PS1, Final Fantasy VI and IV on SNES/GBA/PS1...soon to be DS for IV)! Let us just hope that the PS3 either experiences a miraculous increase in sales soon or when the PS3 "exclusive" games are released to keep this developer's ship upright. What do you think will happen if the PS3 doesn't live up to Square-Enix's expectations?
Game maker in play for foreign partner [Financial Times]
[via GameSpot]
Super Timsy
Posted to Video Games on 25 September 2007
· Comments (11)
Other stuff like this: Financial Times, Michihiro Sasaki, PlayStation 3, Square-Enix
When will the idiots in charge of these companies realise that there is plenty of interest in RPGs in the West.
And fantasy? Someone remind him what country LOTR and Harry Potter are from.
Oh and notice how nice it is of him to not even mention Europe. Once again rubbing our nose in the importance game developers place in us Europeans.
There's been no mention of Chrono Trigger (or FFVI for that matter)on the DS.... unless you happen to know something I don't know...
Nevermind, I think I read it wrong.
The Final Fantasy series has always been hugely popular out here. It's Square's fault that they didn't even bother releasing 3/4s of them over here in the first place. If the last few incarnations hadn't been so awful, there wouldn't be any problems.
It's not that there isn't any interest in RPG in the West, but that there isn't enough. Most Western RPG players are hardcore (is that the correct term) and stems from Dungeons and Dragons. Most of them would prefer the RPGs from Bioware, than anything from Square-Enix.
Whereelse there's a huge demand in Japan and China. You can't deny that the most popular games in the West are Action games. Even Oblivion have become more Action-oriented than RPG compared to its previous incarnations.
If you want to do well in America, develope for the XBox 360. Want to do well in Japan, choose the PS3. The best things that developers can do is release the games on BOTH platform to get maximum coverage. But then you get the porting situation. Oh well.
The handheld market is a definite safe financial bet for any game developer. As long as Square-Enix keeps the DS and PSP owners happy, they have more room to take greater risks with their console titles.
Funny, EA was their publisher for the majority of the PSone years.
I wonder if they'll be going back to the behemoth?
Honestly, Square's insecurity is chilling to me. If their PS3 sales go badly enough, will they move to another system... or simply keep the majority of their titles in Japan?
As a diehard Final Fantasy fan that doesn't know Japanese, it's a scary thought.
The quote I heard in my head when I read this was...
"Our strength is in remaking the same role-playing games over and over, so it is a bit difficult to appeal to the US market."
Aw, don't worry Square-Enix. No matter what platform your games are released on, chances are excellent that I'll be the console just to play your games. I can't resist. I'm hopelessly addicted to your e-crack.
After seeing that Crisis Core and the new Tactics are going to be released on the PSP, my ambivalence toward that system cleared up and now I've vowed to procure it.
And now that it's been announced that the quality of graphics we've been seeing in the FFXIII trailers are the ones we'll be seeing in the game, you've ensured that I'll happily shell out $600+ for the PS3 just so I can support my not-so guilty pleasure: Your Final Fantasy games.
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