Yo, SE, Is it true?

[TirionCrey]

Ok heres the difference.

10 years ago Squaresoft was not a PUBLISHER. They were only a Developer. Square PUBLISHED through EA and only Published Squaresoft game (Under the name Square EA)

Now a days Square Enix is a developer and a Publisher. But they publish for other companies too (Cavia, gas power games, eidos, and Activision (In Japan).)

The reason "SE" seems to be pushing out so much crap isn't because THEY pushed out crap its because people they had contracts with for publishing did. Thats why they dropped a bunch of developers and games in april. Because they were tired of pushing out bad games from third rate developers.

That was in AMERICA only......EA only published Square games in US...but oh I forgot...US is the world...

[Grim_Lion]

Our Linkshell has the rights to "Squaresoft".

SE would have to buy it off us with phat loots. Maybe even release me the Samurai class, and I might cut a deal.

[Winterclaw]

They say they lost 55 million on lost investment for the games they dropped do to quality.

The ones I could find were Gunloco, Project Dropship, and a few "Unnamed projects"

Gunloco reminds me of brink, so if it played the same... yeah I could see it getting dropped. That could be 10 million alone considering it was getting close to release.

However this begs the question, what is going on as SE?


PS. FF13-2 is looking pretty meh to me. I think it has some quick time events (which people don't really like) which is a step backwards.

I mean, Enix games by themselves were great, and Squaresoft games by themselves were great, but together.. not so good.

Yeah but square was on shaky ground by the time of the merger. FF:SW stank. FF:U wasn't that great either. And those were both pre-merger.

FFX was great if you ask me (a last hurrah?), but I think when the merger happened, I think their egos or vision got too big for them to handle. I was hoping for better after DQ8 (a great game as well) but it never materialized. Basically the kid locked in the candy store woke up with a few extra pounds and a killer toothache.

When they said after the merger that they didn't want to do any more romantically themed FF games I was like huh? Whether you cared for it or not, those themes really helped the characters develop in the respective stories. What would have FF4 been without Cecil and Rosa and a jealous Kain?

I say:

1. Get back to good stories.
2. Romance is good. Time for a harem comedy? Time for the female love interest to be the main villain and you have to decide whether to kill her for her crimes or try to save her from herself?
3. Character Development (storywise) is good.
4. Stop it with the save the world nonsense, it's too cliche. Maybe make it about two rival kingdoms or something smaller.
5. Bring back the traditional summons but in a non-freaky way (FF13 was freaky but I wouldn't mind shiva staying twins).
6. Maybe it's time for a little more story branching.
7. Try to give the players a few more options in how to approach things. Like give us a choice of 3 places were we can fight a boss, but each one has advantages and drawbacks over the others.
8. Stop trying to make movies or interactive movies and get back to making games.


BTW, square started in 1983, square EA didn't happen until 1998.

[Cairdeas]

Please speak for yourself, I loved X2, XII, and XIII.

Still Nier has probably been my most favorite game from SE in the last 5 years.

PS. FF13-2 is looking pretty meh to me. I think it has some quick time events (which people don't really like) which is a step backwards.

The quick time events happen in combat, they actually look like fun, Kinda like a mix of the Advent Children Fights and God of War. They are just extentions on things like the Trigger system from FFVIII

[Winterclaw]

The quick time events happen in combat, they actually look like fun, Kinda like a mix of the Advent Children Fights and God of War. They are just extentions on things like the Trigger system from FFVIII

I remember heavenly blade having something like that. I didn't mind it too much for movement, but I didn't like it when combat was broken up by QTEs. In FF8 I always set trigger to auto.

No More Heroes kinda got away with it in finishing moves, but even those got repetitive.

[Cairdeas]

I remember heavenly blade having something like that. I didn't mind it too much for movement, but I didn't like it when combat was broken up by QTEs. In FF8 I always set trigger to auto.

No More Heroes kinda got away with it in finishing moves, but even those got repetitive.

From what I understand its rare the fight will even have them.

Also Auto-Trigger would not trigger the bonus damage for basic melee attacks just on the limit breaks.

[Abriael]

As a gaming writer I'm always amazed how a slow news day makes some feellow writers go all out in rather baseless speculation, and how much some take that speculation seriously.

The filing for the Square trademark doesn't indicate much by itself, it's most probably just one of those very common defensive trademarking moves that companies do to avoid other upstart companies to use brands similar to theirs.

Many commonly refer to Square Enix as "Square" so it's only natural for them to file for the trademark, otherwise anyone could create a softco, call it square, and cause cofusion. With defensive trademarking SE covers it's rear from such an occurrence.

Not saying that it's impossible for them to rebrand, but it's very unlikely (rebranding an established big business costs a LOT, and SE isn't exactly finding money hanging from trees nowadays), and a trademark filing is really too little to go out on a leg and spread rumors.

Guess some "writers" aren't creative enough to just write some decent editorial or opinion piece when it's a slow news day.

[Cairdeas]

As a gaming writer I'm always amazed how a slow news day makes some feellow writers go all out in rather baseless speculation, and how much some take that speculation seriously.

The filing for the Square trademark doesn't indicate much by itself, it's most probably just one of those very common defensive trademarking moves that companies do to avoid other upstart companies to use brands similar to theirs.

Many commonly refer to Square Enix as "Square" so it's only natural for them to file for the trademark, otherwise anyone could create a softco, call it square, and cause cofusion. With defensive trademarking SE covers it's rear from such an occurrence.

Not saying that it's impossible for them to rebrand, but it's very unlikely (rebranding an established big business costs a LOT, and SE isn't exactly finding money hanging from trees nowadays), and a trademark filing is really too little to go out on a leg and spread rumors.

Guess some writers aren't creative enough to just write some decent editorial when it's a slow news day.

I love when people say SE is not making money as if they only make video games. >.>

[Abriael]

I love when people say SE is not making money as if they only make video games. >.>

SE is making money, BUT it's not exactly their best period, money-wise. Engaging in a rebranding operation of little value (it actually makes the name more generic and less recognizable, and it's not even a return to the past of nostalgic value, as it'd be missing the "soft" ) that would cost a crapton of money (it's not just a matter of changing a logo), when you're not making money in excess, wouldn't make much sense.

Not that it would make much sense even if they were bathing in 1000 yen bills, considering that, again, a rebranding like that would be absolutely ineffective under any point of view.

I put this rumor at a 1% possibility, for the effort, and honestly it makes me chuckle that someone that deems himself a gaming writer would not know of defensive trademarking, which is very, very common in the gaming industry.

[trinta]

So Square Soft wasn't a "developer only" name, as you said? That's all I'm getting at.