Square enix will be focusing on mobile

http://m.neogaf.com/showthread.php?t=556968



More rpg goodness for iPad please.

AppleIntimidation said:

http://m.neogaf.com/showthread.php?t=556968

More rpg goodness for iPad please.

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not iPads, but Android devices

Smart devices - dumb games

Makes sense at the point they are, they seem really focused on improving the Return-over-Investment ration, and AAA console titles they make are extremely expensive and offer great risk.

Personally, I would aim for smaller console/pc titles, but I can see why they took that decision...

I'll never understand why it have to be high-risk high-revenue titles nowadays.

Why do they low-risk moderate-revenue titles only for consoles & handhelds nowadays ?

They leave the PC platfdorm totally out.
It's as if they strongly believe that low-risk medium-revenue games just "wouldn't sell" on the PC platform - or just be pirated.

Instead, Indies make them - but Indie games often just not be bought at retail. Which leaves a gap there.

It doesn't surprise me at all.

$100000 investment mobile game with in game micro transactions ( for example shoot fish and collect coins ) make a big hit and it can get played by 300 million people, each of them earning you an average of $1 profit. Then you have an income of around $300 million. If it doesn't become a big hit you lost at most $100000.

$30 million investment on next gen console game. If it becomes a big hit you might sell 10 million for a profit $40 each, and make almost the same profit. However if it doesn't become a big hit you can lose $10 million or more.

Square Enix.
= Fullmetal Alchemist
= with capable management millions to earn in gaming industry

And what they did with the setting? They've made a few console crap games. IMO they've deserved Interplay's fate.

And why are desktops and laptops missing from that chart, eh? Not a complete picture and thereby SUSPECT!

One less company that will have my business. Hate me for my huge tv and pc monitor, but the idea of playing a game on a screen under 25" just seems wrong....I mean, I did that in the 80's. Landlines forever!!


-Carn

When you look at the cost vs revenue you can't blame them. Remember this is the company that needs 6-8 million sales on every console/pc release to consider it profitable.

GothicGothicness said:

It doesn't surprise me at all.

$100000 investment mobile game with in game micro transactions ( for example shoot fish and collect coins ) make a big hit and it can get played by 300 million people, each of them earning you an average of $1 profit. Then you have an income of around $300 million. If it doesn't become a big hit you lost at most $100000.

$30 million investment on next gen console game. If it becomes a big hit you might sell 10 million for a profit $40 each, and make almost the same profit. However if it doesn't become a big hit you can lose $10 million or more.

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On the other hand, last thing I heard a relatively small amount of the smartphone/tab games actually make a decent profit, or even break even. While they won't lose as much from each failure, the failure frequency will probably be far greater. The market is just too crowded right now.

Also, note how the graph just shows units sold. How many of those were ½€ games? And does it take into account free advertisement supported games like angry birds? (Free on iphone, if my memory serves) All we have are numbers without context, and numbers without context means absolutely nothing. Might Square-Enix be trying to pull a Ubisoft, where they just say something to justify a future action? (I'm thinking about the whole DRM thing, where Ubisoft just made some statements without backing them up in order to first justify their DRM, and then after their DRM caused more harm than good, trying to blame it on the PC-market being dead)

There's another thing. Android and iOS are here to stay for a long while, and evolve. Same as developing for Windows. But developing for consoles means wasting 2-3 years learning a new system and developing middleware, then try to churn enough (expensive) successful games to recover the investment and then do it all over again when the new console generation arrives.

Thrasher said:

And why are desktops and laptops missing from that chart, eh? Not a complete picture and thereby SUSPECT!

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Not that long ago Sony wasn't doing any console at all. That they plan leave this market because they don't see how manage it, it's logical.

But I doubt they have any clue on how make big profit from mobile games. Moreover there's certainly future options to use a mobile and get the sound and image on TV. That's not ridiculous when you know that the ipad resolution is 2048×1536, I can have a bit higher on my 30" monitor but I always use a quite lower to have stuff bigger.

Now it's an error to imagine Sony game business on mobile could be based on a same model than are using the tiny independent dev working in that area. Make tiny games quickly developed? And how Sony could challenge independent dev on that road? That would be ridiculous, pointless, and more importantly a very risked business because of a constant flow of concurrents coming on the market.

But that's a console point of view, which is the Sony main business in games.

The PC is a bit special it's both a console for many players and a general tool that cannot replace any tablet. For the second reason plenty people have one. But it doesn't justify to constantly upgrade it for more power if it's not also (and often mainly) a console game.

Unfortunately what they have shown so far is underwhelming ...

Their ports of Final Fantasy games are decent - but these are old games I have already played on GBA, DS & PSP for mobile tech.

Anything new they have done for mobile has been crap, and I can't recall the name of the latest one but it was awful AND a shameless attempt to reach into your wallet frequently!

Couchpotato said:

When you look at the cost vs revenue you can't blame them. Remember this is the company that needs 6-8 million sales on every console/pc release to consider it profitable.

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Of course, if you've already invested that money…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbEcQCqCezg

Zloth said:

Of course, if you've already invested that money…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbEcQCqCezg

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Their latest tech engine almost broke the company this generation. Can't wait for the excuses on the next consoles.

txa1265 said:

Their ports of Final Fantasy games are decent - but these are old games I have already played on GBA, DS & PSP for mobile tech.

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I disagree. At least when I played FF1 and FF2 on my iPod Touch the experience sucked (I played the legit version not the NES emulated version) and while playable I could never be bothered to complete either. Of course having played both at least 2-3 times did not help my willingness to complete them on my iPod. I've tried a handful of other RPGs like Zenonia but controls were never friendly enough or the games interesting enough. Maybe with dedicated controls like PSP or bigger screen like iPad I could see a difference.

My standard mobile games are short to get in and short to get out like pinball or puzzle games. RPGs are not easy for me to get in or out of even if it has instant save and load. I understand them abandoning the PC for the console for RPGs but do not understand abandoning console for mobile yet.

figment said:

I disagree. At least when I played FF1 and FF2 on my iPod Touch the experience sucked (I played the legit version not the NES emulated version) and while playable I could never be bothered to complete either.

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I first played them on the GBA (never much of a console or jRPG fan), and honestly think those were my favorite versions.

FFV on iPad is definitely thebest way to experience it thus far.

More recent square enix news that seems to coincide with Microsoft's Xbox One:http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=568197