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Wada talks next-gen; vomits remakes

  • Published at 16:34:18 PT
  • Reported by Ziyad Khesbak
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In a recent interview with the Nihon Keizai Shimbun, Yoichi Wada, acting president of Square Enix Co., discussed the company’s next-gen strategy, which appears to be geared more towards milking the past than creating the future. What could possibly be in store?

Yoichi Wada has never been much of an exciting personality. His term as Square Enix's president has undergone a long period which has featured multitudes of regurgitated titles and epic cases of polymorphism. And it looks like that's not about to change.

In his interview, Wada describes confronting rising development costs by taking business online and offering online content, which would allow for flexible pricing and further opportunities to generate profit for titles which would have previously only received a physical release. Listing downloadable demo versions and budget releases as advantages of such a program, Wada imagines titles being released in a scaled down fashion for particular sections of the Final Fantasy fanbase. Could this mean two versions of each title, one in full and the other for the weak-hearted?

Of course, Wada wants to give younger developers a chance to develop themselves, and adds that they might gather experience on ports and remakes for some six to twelve months and apply their newly acquired abilities to new games later; titles with which the maniacal mastermind aims to conquer next-gen markets. In practice, this may create an entire division of Square Enix composed entirely of inexperienced developers dedicated to pumping out remake after port after remake. But can such a torrent of redundant titles actually hold up after they’ve completely saturated the market? One would be inclined to say that even the profits from fans that hold sales up for such remakes would dissolve. Without a younger, fresher generation of gamers to step up and re-experience the classics, this may put a crimp in Wada’s expertly crafted connivances.

But other options are being put into practice: Wada cites Square Enix’s recent purchase of Epic Games’ Unreal Engine 3, a move which he believes will be useful in cutting costs with Japanese development houses much the same way it has done with their Western counterparts.

Altogether, Wada has given the impression that Square Enix’s focus will now begin to shift away from originality and cast its greedy eyes on budget releases, ports, and remakes. A bleak future indeed.


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Forums / News / Wada talks next-gen; vomits remakes

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DUDE GAY!!! oh man, if Wada keeps throwin up remakes i'm gonna throw up. they remade FFIV how many times?!?! one for the PS, one for the advance. gah.
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You realize, of course, that Squeenix hasn't even begun to package their titles in virtually limitless combinations. FFI through FFIV, "the early years". FFV and FFIX, "the poorly received years". FFX and FFXII, "the androgynous years".
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