Square-Enix Square's New Plan: Western Studios = Online Games; Japan = Smartphone Games

...

 

Oh boy, I'm so glad you posted this here so people can over react to everything said here by all the things not said here.

Like how Eidos is never mentioned by name and how they kept referring to overseas as "mainly china," show they have a much larger target than the US.

I'm sure they're canceling Thief right now and making Thief: Online, and that's why Eidos canceled the release of Deus Ex: HR Director's Cut days before launch. Also, KHIII is being reworked for Android devices, KHII.5 will only be iPhone, FFXV is going back to being called Versus XIII and being made into a MOBA game, and Crystal Dynamics will do nothing but make hats to be sold in Realm Reborn.

Also, Eidos isn't developing Nosgoth like a bunch of posts in that neogaf thread suggested. Some outsourced developer by the name of "Psyonix Studios" is. Which, it wouldn't surprising if SE was also looking into outsourcing more here.

I just find it stupid to jump to such a conclusion when they've made no nod to Eidos except by the phrase "overseas studios" (because it had to mean all of them, right? Not just multiple?) when Eidos and Crystal Dynamics have been the only reason the publisher got any attention at press events before this year.

It's not conclusive, it's something jumped to because of a power point and this is EXACTLY what Jim Sterling was talking about this week. Just tons of cloak and dagger HATE in this industry between the community and publishers. Crazy.

 

...

 

...

 

...

 

...

 

...

 

...

 

I've gone pretty 'numb' to this fact, the online and mobile business Square has begun to turn to. But Square has wasted so much money on projects that have not gone through.
That Nosgoth is a prime example, originally being the multiplayer in a new game in the Kain series, the single player was cancelled.
I've talked to someone involved with the production of that game (I don't want to name who just because I'm not sure if he was under contract whilst telling me, don't want to get him into trouble. Disbelieve me at your own accord, I know some people simply do not trust by promise alone and need evidence). He told me how Square had sunk 20 million (dollars or pounds, not sure) to develop the game, been in development for a few years and they were pretty much done, they had Cinematic trailers and everything prepped and were ready for a full reveal.
The issue was that the game ran at really low FPS, because a game mechanic that allowed the player to switch between a 'light and dark' world setting instantly, which was taxing the system. Next gen was coming up and revealed to Square companies, which the developers thought was perfect to make a next gen launch title, with the new hardware allowing them to fix the FPS issue, however it had a projected cost of around another 20 million to do this. Square weren't willing to put money into it, with a projected revenue of only 25-30 million, so they cancelled the project and used the stable multiplayer to market as Nosgoth.
Right there, they've lost a game, time of a studio and money.
The projected sales for Tomb Raider as well was greatly exaggerated by Square, and made a 'loss' because of this.

Mobile markets are rising, online has a popular trend now that loads of places now have stable internet, it's not a dumb move to go this direction on paper, but Square's track record of this recent gen has just been terrible and it's hard to see if they'll really grow form this. I hope, but Square isn't the same one that made Kingdom Hearts, it's a whole different ball game now, and I wonder if it'll be the same as before in name only. Time will tell.

 

Nothing to do with how you presented it, I just seriously need evidence before believing that to be any form of true. This industry has a habit of exaggerating crap all. the. time.

But, if what you said were true... you can't say it wasn't a smart business move to pull out if you're in a dying company that needs to keep making profit.

 

...

 

...

 

I can't source it, I know the guy in real life, he's a lecturer at my Uni. I was interested in video game writing and narrative design (i'd researched his name and found he'd worked in the industry as a freelance), so I approached hima nd we talked about the industry and so on. It came up, even though I knew nothing of the game series before he talked about it, actually I know nothing about it apart from what he told me so... I've said already, if my word is not enough, I'm not going to try and convince anyone because I can't.

I know on a business side it wasn't stupid, not to cancel it at least, but to sink money into it was. Like I said, they've been making either bad investments (Kain game) or overestimated the success of their investments (Tomb Raider, etc). I'm a fairly firm believer that if the game is a majority of the way done, with a problem that is fixable and you've spent 20 million on, you do not cancel it, you invest your money. The thing is, they've not learnt from bad investments, nor reducing the high costs they incur even after all these games they've made this gen, and I can bet they haven't either from them cancelling the Kain game.

Just because I'm not sure you saw it in the original post by libre:

 

Confirmed to be public info. This does not prove the legitimacy of said posters as "insiders" as opposed to PR people or really good googlers.

I have to take my like back now though. I'm sorry. You did really earn that one too! :C

 

...

 

...

 

...

 

I thought we were talking about the legitimacy of the information of this article that discusses Square's future business plans and how they were going in a mobile and online direction.
Why does the legitimacy of two members on Neogaf concern the discussion about this? I think libre was pointing to the fact he was presented this by these two insiders, though I could be seeing it wrong.

 

...

 

It is including Eidos though, which implies all associated information is applicable to Eidos, like CD and so on. If we were to analyse like I guess we type of gamers do, can assume they are referring to Eidos in such a capacity that will affect their development of games.

Also, it's a business plan for the future, not a report on the current situation. This type of business plan implies that it will be implemented in the future, not including current developments. Something like 5 years or more maybe, most businesses take a yearly review to see if the plan is still viable and adjust appropriately.

So as amateur analysts, from the information given we can predict Eidos studios will eventually be developing Online only games within the next 5 years or so. It's not a wild leap, it is a logical conclusion.