Square Enix Rolling Its Own Meta-Katamari
After gobbling up Eidos, opening up an LA studio and admitting some of its recent failures, Square Enix seems to be on a mission from the King of All Cosmos himself - yesterday Square Enix president Yoichi Wada talked expansion and course correction:
"The combination of Eidos and Square Enix gives us a good platform from which to expand. In that process, we might decide to acquire another company,"
Wossat? Well, Square has signed a deal with Dungeon Siege developer Gas Powered Games, which might make for a less costly purchase. After all, Square's sales have fallen 17% over the eighteen months prior to the end of 2008. And while Mr Wada didn't necessarily admit any error on Square's part per se, he had harsh words for the state of the gaming union in Japan:
"In the last five to 10 years, the Japanese games industry has become a closed environment, with no new people coming in, no new ideas, almost xenophobic. It is now slightly behind western counterparts," Mr Wada said. "The lag with the US is very clear. The US games industry was not good in the past but it has now attracted people from the computer industry and from Hollywood, which has led to strong growth."
Keep an eye out for what could be another purchase for Square Enix - Square's recent Western focus and attempts to reinvent itself might present some clues as to what that purchase might be, but until we hear more your guess is as good as mine.
Square Enix Contemplates Further Acquistions [Financial Times via GameLife]
tiny dancer
Posted to Miscellany on 28 April 2009
· Comments (1)
Other stuff like this: acquisition, eidos, square enix, yoichi wada
20 points for the article name.
Out of ten.
As for which company they'll pick up next, I got no idea :D