[06/03] SE ditches social games, decides to focus on “epic and famous” consumer games instead

[C i d]

In recent times, Square Enix has latched onto the social game craze – a move that many fans have come to disagree with.


2012 saw the company release a wide variety of social games under the banner of established IPs – many of them free to play and on browser or smartphone platforms. Square Enix took to promoting these releases through vague countdowns and eventually a weekly blog on Famitsu’s App corner featuring mobile division producer Takehiro Ando.


Ando has already worked on a variety of Square Enix mobile projects, including the revised Final Fantasy Tactics for both iOS and Android. Through his Famitsu blog, he would often announce new details for titles like Drakerider or Crystal Defenders.


“Goodbye Social Games” is the title of Ando’s latest entry, and in it he discusses a variety of things including Square’s first social game and how nearly all social games seem to ape the same reskinned concepts such as card collecting and gashapon games. He admits that SE is quite guilty of this as well, dragging down their own franchises such as Final Fantasy and World of Mana for the sake of catching a quick profit. While these titles have drawn in people who might not normally engage in video games, Ando notes that the hardcore gamers – the ones used to console and dedicated handhelds – are being left out in the cold. As a result, there is a plan to shy away from social games and focus more on higher quality games that long-time gamers can enjoy.


The move away from social games will signal an important transition for 2013: Square Enix is planning to release internally developed “epic and famous” consumer games, one after another.


Via: NeoGAF.


Source: Nova Crystallis

 

[Shaissa]

As much as I want to say good job square for finally going back to your roots I am also skeptic on this, cause I think really that if it makes money, square will mooch on it, and let us admit it, those stupid phone games make money, so square will mooch on it

 

[Linnaete]

Either:

a) SE feel confident enough at this stage of the FFXIV 2.0 development and prospects that they don't feel the need to crank out as many games like Star Galaxy and Final Fantasy Airborne Brigade anymore for even more quick money.

b) Ando's superiors after reading this:

"...yeah, no. Get back to making them. Profit margins, man! PROFIT FUCKING MARGINS!"

Yeah, just an FYI in case: social games =/ iOS and Android games. If we manage to see more good quality (albeit, overpriced) stuff like Chaos Rings 3 as opposed to say, All The Bravest, then that's a good start and will do for me.

But someone wake me up when they decide to get off of their hairy arses and get their localisation branches to localise Bravely Default and Dragon Quest 7 3DS. Seriously, we have niche things like Etrian Odyssey IV and even Project X Zone coming. Why can't Bravely and DQ follow up?

 

[Ohri-Jin]

This is not a smart move imo. It was already clear social games actually produced a decent revenue for SE.
Now they are ditching it. OMG... They should never have started with social games anyway or grow a set of balls and continue doing it.

SE had major losses because of failed FFXIV, Weak sales of FFXIII.
They seemed to focus more on Social Games which actually gave them a relatively decent income.
Eidos helped for profit.

Now a new FFXIII-3 coming up. Tomb Raider already being a succes. Hitman absolution doing ok. FFXIV reboot SE is now suddenly so confident to ditch the social game sector.

Bold SE very bold I hope it doesn't bite ya in the ass.

I freaking love this new Tomb Raider btw

 

[Shaissa]

Weak sales of FFXIII.

Final Fantasy XIII became the fastest-selling title in the history of the series. The game had sold over 6 million copies worldwide

Final Fantasy XIII-2 Sold around 3 Million... real weak sales there...

FFXIV I will give you, and it is one of the main reasons that some people claim that SquareEnix actually lost money the year it was released.

and Social Games are infact a good quick money maker for Square and many companies... I assume this includes Phone games... usually either remakes or something that can take less than a year to make, so why quit it?
I hope it is so they can focus more on their "big games" in hope that they will sell more, but at the same time they are taking a gamble in hoping that this next generation will sell more games than the last generation... Risky move I agree though...

 

[Ohri-Jin]

Final Fantasy XIII became the fastest-selling title in the history of the series. The game had sold over 6 million copies worldwide

Final Fantasy XIII-2 Sold around 3 Million... real weak sales there...

FFXIV I will give you, and it is one of the main reasons that some people claim that SquareEnix actually lost money the year it was released.

and Social Games are infact a good quick money maker for Square and many companies... I assume this includes Phone games... usually either remakes or something that can take less than a year to make, so why quit it?
I hope it is so they can focus more on their "big games" in hope that they will sell more, but at the same time they are taking a gamble in hoping that this next generation will sell more games than the last generation... Risky move I agree though...

Fastest selling FF title only because expectations were high and it was first next gen ff title for ps3. A lot returned their copies or sold it or bought it later on when prices dropped or bouvht them second handed.

http://www.vgchartz.com/game/7727/final-fantasy-xiii/
According to this it sold 4.93 million copies global.

 

[Linnaete]

Final Fantasy XIII-2 Sold around 3 Million... real weak sales there...

That's how much the game shipped worldwide. And there have been reports that it overshipped, which would explain why it was dirt cheap so quickly and still nowhere near getting a Platinum version, so its actual sales figures might not even be that. It doesn't help that many sources read it as "FFXIII-2 sold 3.1 million copies either", conflating the two concepts.

So yeah, not too sure about that statistic there.

/technicality

But yes, FFXIII sold ridiculous numbers. It's just factually untrue to say that it hasn't.

 

[Shaissa]

But yes, FFXIII sold ridiculous numbers. It's just factually untrue to say that it hasn't.

True there are many contridicting reports on how much XIII and XIII-2 sold I guess... but
All I was saying when Ohri said that FFXIII was "weak on sales" is that that wasn't true cause XIII fact has sold well over 4 million, and probably closer to the 6 million area world wide, and XIII-2 sold way over 2 million and probably into the 3 millions and if you call that "weak sales" then really i wont know what makes "good sales..."

But we can get back on topic, sorry for the slight off topic discussion

 

[Ohri-Jin]

Compared to older ff titles those are weak. Look at sale figures of older ff titles and compare them to FFXIII's by Ff standards its weak. I even had a thread somewhere ages ago about this.

 

[Shaissa]

Cid, firstly sorry in advance I swear this will be the last time I comment on this when it is off subject

Second
@Ohri I wasn't saying it sold more than less than other games in the series, I was just saying that it wasn't "weak sales" on FFXIII that you claimed in your first post

but I did agree with you on it being a risky move cause of how poor XIV did.

Really there other games haven't done poor in sales but haven't been as amazing as they wanted either, (at least from what they have said in the past with Hitman and some other games they have published) Tomb Raider has just come out so I wont include that one, but really it is a risky move.

(Kinda tried to get it back on topic Cid, I swear this will be the last off topic post from me)

 

[Ohri-Jin]

Shace The Great

Sorry you were right about FFXIII's sale figures tht link I posted was of PS3 only so you are exactly right on the numbers.
I still think tons of people returned it though.

My perspective is a bit clouded on the subject of FFXIII cause I despise what the FFXIII universe represents.

Also in regards to older FF titles I was once again wrong, however I still cant forget the fact tht Im certain a lot of people returned tht shit..




Its slightly Off-Topic but it is a debate of FF's future imo. SE's past actions and present action (this article) and future actions.
This decision of SE ditching social games is big IMO.

SE boldy even claims to focus on "Epic and Famous" consumer games???!!! LIKE WHAT???? NEW IP'S? FF Versus?
I havent played a single FF title on the PS3 and it makes me sick.

Give me versus then.

 

[King Sean]

Although those social games did bring in a decent amount of money for SE, I am glad they are ditching them. With the obvious delay they are having with games we should have gotten eleventy billion years ago, they reall don't have time to put into these, in my opinion, horrible games.

 

[Tyler Breeze]

Meh.... I don't care what they do. I did like Crystal Defenders though. I played it on XBL a few days ago and thought it was awesome. If they really do ditch the social games I don't care. What I do care about is games like 14 and Versus. Which is what they can now focus on. Which I guess is a good thing. Hopefully they make those games good so that people will want to buy it. Then they get a big profit.

 

[BlueMouse]

This is a surprise to me, given the popularity of social games in Japan. Perhaps they're just realizing that they're not very good at them and they'll lose that arena anyway? Core gamers, as a market, are a lot less fickle than social gamers.

 

[Razberry Knight]

this is probably because of the heavy criticism given for all the bravest and airbourne brigade.