Whats funny is Squeenix wanted to work again with Nintendo on the GBA (apparently Sony didnt fulfill some of the promises they made to Square with regards to fees/royalty), but former president Yamauchi didnt want them (after leaving N64 for Playstation). It was only under Satoru Iwata when they got back in (after Yamauchi's retirement).
I always thought Square came back making games on Nintendo consoles only after they merged with Enix, since Enix kept publishing games on the Nintendo 64 and Game Boy Color, so there wasn't any bad blood between Nintendo and Enix Still, I think there's only one Squaresoft title for the Game Boy Advance, a Chocobo spin-off game
@@waffle.23 I said "Squaresoft", there was only game published by Squaresoft on the GBA before they merged with Enix, after that there were various games published by Square-Enix on the GBA
@@waffle.23 Final Fantasy Tactics Advance was a brand new game but it was released after the merger between Square and Enix, I think it was released in 2003. Final Fantasy I & II Dawn of Souls was released in 2004 or 2005, I don't remember that well. I think Square-Enix also made a remake of the first game in the Mana series for the GBA back in '03 and there was also that Kingdom Hearts spin-off title. I think most of Square's library on the GBA were ports of old Super NES games
Every line after "As part of our efforts to optimize our development footprint" I can't take seriously. You listen to a Nintendo Exec interview and they use words like "Fun" and "play" and "creativity" without shame. This corporate techno jargon is really telling.
The fact that without the only instance of the word "game" (which could be easily remove with just keeping "developpement"), you can't know what it's about is really concerning. I know it's only a single answer in a Q&A, thus within a broader context, but it's still bad that there isn't a single "gaming" keyword.
Could I suggest a video on level 5, perhaps? Seeing how most of their games were intrinsically linked to nintendo from 2007 to 2016, and how their state nowadays is a bit worrying, I think it could make for an interesting analysis
Agreed. I'd be particularly interested in the history of the Professor Layton series. I don't know how they did it, but through some alchemy they managed to release a title every year for 6 years back in the days of the DS and 3DS and they were all absolutely fantastic (until Katrielle Layton, perhaps).
@@joshpetzoldt6344yeah, same thing for inazuma eleven. It’s impressive how much they were able to pump out in such a short timespan For professor layton games at least, I think it’s because they’re extremely simple in their structure. There’s very little use of 3d graphics, and its point and click nature makes it very easy to work with The puzzles were definitely the most complicated to develop, but a good portion of them only require you to press a button, enter a number, or circle something. So it doesn’t seem to be very time consuming overall
Interesting suggestion and I agree it would be interesting. I'll add it to my big list of suggestions/ideas but it's quite far out of my wheelhouse so would require a lot of research. Could be a fair few months off but I agree it's worth a look.
@@stripedrajang3571 I think it's due to some third-parties, particularly many Japanese one, tend to to avoid making or porting games for Nintendo systems, despite the fact they could be quite successful In regards to SEGA, one of their former top developers/producer, Nagoshi, was said to mention that he didn't want the Yakuza games to appear on Nintendo consoles because of Yakuza's 1+2 failure on WiiU and that he believed Nintendo's userbase was comprised by children and families and that the Yakuza's series is only for mature players. But now that Kiwami sold incredibly well on Switch it seems the games only needed to be released on a successful console. Also, I find it weird that SEGA hasn't tried to release any Sakura Wars on the Switch Aside from that, there's something interesting that a developer from CyberConnect 2 mention, he said that the Japanese gaming market is everybody against Nintendo
I hope Square learns from Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth. They were able to put out a GotY level game with a 3 and a half year development cycle. Just by smart asset reuse and good chemistry with the development team.
It's a shame though that the game has sold far less than FF7 Remake though- perhaps it should be expected since it's no longer lockdown and people would drop off a direct sequel for a far more expensive console, but a game that's just so much more and which I had more fun with selling less... you want that to be rewarded.
FF7 Remake project sucks. Square Enix is terrible and resting on the laurels of the Squaresoft days. It's SAD! SQUARE was Hironobu Sakaguchi! The company has been trying to just cling to life since he left!
In retrospective, I found it very incredible how Squaresoft cut ties with Nintendo very abruptly during the Nintendo 64 era and how they only came back when they merged with Enix, since Enix at least kept publishing games for the Nintendo 64 and Game Boy Color. I can understand why Squaresoft didn't want to develop games for the cartridge-based N64, but they lost a huge opportunity of making games for the Game Boy Color, Enix had a lot of success on the GBC with remakes of the first 3 Dragon Quest titles, its DQ Monster spin-off and other games like Star Ocean. It seemed like Squaresoft wanted nothing with Nintendo, since they opted to work with Bandai making games for the WonderSwan
@@AnimeXFever54I believe it's also playable on PS4. A part of me suspects it was made to fulfill a sort of "we tried [x types of things investors ask about]", and then sent out to die, deliberately. A bit of a conspiracy theory, amd without much to back it up, though.
I didn't expect you to make a video on Square Enix but I'm glad you did. Their main issues as I see it are their atrocious management and their questionable investments. Creative freedom for their game producers is great, but remaking FF7 in 3 parts on AAA budget over 10 years was not a sound financial decision. And that's even before we get into the exclusivity deal for those games and their other recent AAA games (FF16, Forespoken). I feel like a sharp contraction of Playstation's marketshare in Japan contributed to those games underperforming, as well as quite frankly SQEX overestimating the importance of FF to modern gamers. I feel like FF's fanbase has been aging out and SQEX has failed over several console generations to get more younger gamers onboard. Of course, some of this will be addressed by SQEX "aggressively pursuing a multiplatform strategy". Something you didn't mention here is their obstinate push into cryptocurrency and NFTs in recent years, which they have also burned money on. It was brought up by the previous president in 3 of his new years letters before he was replaced, and was highlighted in all their previous financial reports except the most recent ones. The new president Takashi Kiryu was headhunted from Dentsu specifically because he is a crypto bro. Don't be fooled though just because they don't mention it as much it doesn't mean they have completely stopped pursuing NFTs (in the face of the collapse of that market). Their NFT "game" Symbiogenesis is still going although I think only around 50% of the total NFTs have been sold. In my opinion they need to stop wasting money on this crap and refocus on their successful areas like their book and manga publishing.
Kinda curious now- I know they had that embarrassing Portopia AI game and the NFT game, but how much money was honestly invested in that? I know that we'd rather have no money be invested in it at all, but it feels in the larger scope that so little money and marketing was invested there that it seems they were products made just so they could tell hype-horny investors "noooo we're tooootally researching this hot new trend, we're suuuper-invested in it long-term please give us more cash without witholding it if we don't throw away - I mean invest in your new favorite thing". Like, I'd be worried if they were making NFT's in FF14, that'd be a major change, but so far it really doesn't look like they've spent a lot on it.
Hope this is part 1 of more. Could really use looks at the SquareEnix third-party contractors (and some recently strained relationships with them), the merchandising angle, the publishing of western games in Japan angle, what non-game businesses SquareEnix owns (such as Luida's Bar restaurants and Dragon Quest Island theme park), close corporate partners like Lawsons, and of course investor reactions such as the worry about a lack of projects in pipelines following the cancellations and selloffs (i.e., fewer games coming down the line, but ideally higher quality and better-selling.)
@@lilisaur I know that Enix has it's own manga publishing imprint, Gangan Comics. Manga series like Fullmetal Alchemist and Soul Eater were publised in Shonen Gangan
@@pablocasas5906 Yeah I'd forgotten that piece. Very conglomerated company. But all these strong non-game assets also allowed SquareEnix to weather the last several years of big-time busts that probably would have bankrupted other publishers. Game development may be hemorrhaging money but the other parts of the company are still raking in the cash.
@@sanane66543Sadly, much of it feels like half-measures (don't forget that Square's CEO wants to go into NFTs and all that BS). If Square REALLY wants to find their heart again, they need more developers and workers with the heart and passion of Yoshi-P (and they ARE out there) and push back against the modern Western nonsense that no one actually wants (which is where a lot of the dev bloat is actually coming from).
@@shinigamimiroku3723 true but afther playing rebirth its clear to see they listen.... fans wanted open world and they delivered. also its very good game prob the best they made in past 6 years
@@sanane66543 Have they? Have to agree with above assessment that its half-measures. One of their pillars for growth was expanding Dragon Quest brand in the west, which is super popular and likely top 5 gaming IP in Japan, but well outside the top 30 in the west. Its biggest problem is lack of publicity and advertising. So what did they do leading up to Dragon Quest III HD-2D's launch? Two Direct spots and a very brief appearance at PAX West (for which Life is Strange was the key game on display.) This is dwarfed by the amount spent advertising Final Fantasy XXI and FF XIV's Dawntrail expansions recently. They've even spent more advertising Fantasian in western markets than they did Dragon Quest III HD-2D. What they say they're going to do and what they actually do, seem to be at odds.
The idea that Square Enix is considering AI for their future development in their games feel like a bad idea. Maybe less focus on multiple IP and just go for a few liken3 or 4.
Awesome new kind of content for the channel! Square is very important to Nintendo's legacy and seeing how drastically different the company is now from Squaresoft is interesting. I've been looking more into their recent business decisions as well and am worried but hopefully optimistic they can attain the stability of Sega/Atlus and Monolithsoft soon.
If Square was marketing Final Fantasy with Nintendo and bringing their mainline games to all platforms day one then the franchise would be doing so much better.
The thing is that Square-Enix was sort of cultivating more brand awareness for the Final Fantasy brand during the GameCube, Game Boy Advance era, but only regarding remakes and some spin-off titles, the GCN only saw FF: Crystal Chronicles while the GBA got remakes/ports of games such as FF I & II, IV, V and VI, and the Tactics Advance game. There wasn't a lot of FF on the Wii aside from a sort of Crystal Chronicles spin-off and a downloadable sequel to IV, while the DS saw 3D remakes of III and IV. It was during the WiiU and 3DS era that there was another sort of drought in regards to a lack of presence of FF on Nintendo consoles, with only FF 4 Heroes of Life arriving on the 3DS and there was also that rhythm game spin-off, the only other major FF presence back then was Cloud's inclusion as a playable character in Smash Bros. for WiiU and 3DS The thing is that it's been 27 years since Square started developed mainline FF games only for PlayStation (with XIII and XV being the only exceptions), I don't know if the higher-ups at Square-Enix don't consider Nintendo a viable platform for big FF experience and that they just use the Switch as a dumping ground for old titles, since it wasn't until the Switch that Nintendo m players finally managed to experience games like VII, VIII, IX, X, X-2 and XII, while the previous 6 titles were ported much later. Though sometimes I wonder if developers at Square-Enix believe that Nintendo players prefer JRPGs that are closer in style to old-school NES and Super NES experiences, that's why games like Bravely Default and Second, and Octopath Traveller released first on Nintendo hardware. While it would be possible for S-E to make a much bigger game, similar in scope to FF X or XIII on Nintendo consoles, I don't think they would want to take the risk
@@pogoacct8611 well that's because the developers at Square-Enix in charge of the mainline FF games designs the games to be AAA expriences that pushes the graphical envelope of current gen consoles, while Armor Project, the team responsible for the mainline Dragon Quest series, always prioritize the mainline games to run on the most popular console in Japan, that's why Dragon Quest IX was developed for the DS, DQ X for the Wii and why they made two versions of DQ XI, one for the PS4 and another one for the 3DS I can't imagine a new mainline FF game being developed with the Switch 2 limitations in mind, even if gets released simultaneously on the PS5 (or PS6), Xbox and PC, S-E executives want FF to be a next-gen experience, the game equivalent of a summer blockbuster movie and belive people would buy new, more powerful hardware, just to experience it
Much of the "plan" sounds very similar to that outlined by WB, and also in keeping with Unisoft too. It's all very depressing, the management / investment led approach and I'm sceptical that leaning more into that side of the business will yield better results. It's very much at odds with the speech made by Swen Vincke at the game awards, but I'm hoping that a few industry bigwigs might have actually listened to what he was saying
Square Enix is a pretty neat collaborator, especially on SMRPG, and still having Monopoly on Mario’s only basketball series. I hope Nintendo will let them work on more stuff in the future.
That reminds me, when did the last Itadaki/Fortune Street Game came out? The series was started by Enix, but when they merged with Squaresoft there were crossovers between Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy on those games, and there was even a Dragon Quest + Mario Itadaki Street game With the huge success Konami had with Momotaro Dentetsu and how the latest Mario Party is selling, I wonder why S-E didn't make a new Fortune Street for the Switch
I predict that IF they decide to bring all their big AAA jrpgs to Switch 2 they will recover big-time. Then port older games like FF13, FF15 and they will TRHIVE again. Playstation community changed very much from the PS1 and ps2 era. The PS community is not a good JRPG community imo and what I am observing. Much more casual (the default console for FIFA , COD and Madden) and if they are more into gaming as a main hobby they tend to play SIE or second party games first and then maybe they throw an eye on Square games. Yes it's not everyone but the majority, prove is the abissmal sales of the newer FF games.
@@user-be3qc7re9oI liked them, but they were mismanaged. FF13 looked great and played great but the story was weird as hell. FF15 was released unfinished and the DLC episodes got lost in the shuffle. The story was pretty good and melancholic, it deserves reevaluating.
@@user-be3qc7re9o I remember hearing some rumors that developers at S-E tried to downport XV to the Switch, but as absurd as it sounds, it seems the main issue was that the Luminous Engine does not run well on the Switch. At least they released the Pocket Edition Regarding if there's any demand for FF XIII to be available on Nintendo consoles, I think S-E would like for all mainline FF games to be available on Nintendo systems. While they have ported and remade the original six FF games that debuted on Nintendo consoles during the GBA and DS eras, that was years ago and Nintendo players were only able to play the games from VII to XII only until 2019. I'm sure S-E would like to cultivate a FF audience on Nintendo consoles
Square Enix has had constant internal problems since merging. Looking at the stock I think it shows. In two decades the stock has risen by about 100%. That might sound like a lot, but that means they're in the same boat as Ubisoft. Ubisoft's stock is in the gutter right now. Square Enix has released some great games, but a lot of them were made by studios they bought or comissioned.
Worth noting that HD game sales being down doesn’t necessarily mean all games in that division bombed; it's more likely that a number of titles in that division underperformed enough to drag down any that did meet expectations. We don't know which, since we don't have concrete sales numbers. I'm hopeful that they can recover confidence in releasing smaller, AA-budget games made by smaller teams, once they realize that going multiplatform is far more of a boon than their actions suggest they previously assumed.
they've lost their way if they're going to spend half a decade on a game and then have it underperform - how many times can a company do that - makes me wonder about internal corruption
I think Square will focus more on mid budget games like Octopath Traveler and Bravely Default maybe with different ips like a science fiction themed RPG or something since Octopath 2 didn't sell that well. But those kinda games are lower risk than something like Final Fantasy 16 that has a ridiculous budget. That said they still gotta go big with their large franchises. Like main line Final Fantasy games are bound to sell well. Hopefully, the next games in those franchises will be artistically forfilling too. God bless, Jesus saves. ❤️❤❤
It doesn't sound very good to me, and I feel for their employees who will have to endure the corporate management hijinks that are supposed to boost efficiency. I liked how they have operated these past years with many experimental titles and care spread to lesser known IPs, but it doesn't sound like that will keep up.
@@thepartyoftea but it also seems like S-E didn't produce a lot of physical copies and while the game is selling great in Japan, they haven't managed to sell over a million copies on the Switch, which I think it could've been possible considering both the 3DS and PS4 versions of DQ XI managed to sell over a million copies both in their debut week
I don’t think I’ve ever had such a hot and cold relationship with a publisher like I have with Square Enix over the years. I felt betrayed when Square jumped ship to PlayStation. I still think FF7 is the most overrated game. Chrono Trigger is the greatest game of all time ever. Dragon Quest VIII is a masterpiece. FFIV and VI and DQV are all incredible.
What worst after Nintendo started making CD systems the jerk of the president refuse to make games for those systems. Imaging being butthurt over a disagreement three decades ago just to leave money on the table due being a angry child not moving on to make better business decisions.
From what I've seen, Dragon Quest 3 2D-HD Remake and Fantasian are doing successfully well. And with Dragon Quest 1 & 2 2D-HD Remake being on the horizon, Square might go too bleak. Who knows.
Today the total number of U.S. game sales from November was published and Dragon Quest III HD-2D managed to chart, but only among the Top Ten best-selling Switch games, the PlayStation and Xbox versions were nowhere to be seen, perhaps this was due more to the fact that Dragon Quest games have a stronger pressence on Nintendo consoles compared to its competitors, with the exception of the Dragon Quest VII which released on PSOne and VIII which released on PS2, I know that Dragon Quest XI was released only on PS4 outside of Japan, but the Japan-only 3DS version managed to outsold it by a couple more units I don't know if this serves as evidence that Dragon Quest XII is being developed for the Switch's successor, because there's been some sayings, rumors and speculations that Enix and Armor Project want the series to have a big breakthrough moment outside of Japan, similar to how Final Fantasy VII, Persona 5 and Monster Hunter: World were for their respective franchises, but people are arguing that that would mean Armor Project is aiming for a sort of AAA experience with DQXII, espcically since they have announced that they are developing it using Unreal 5, while series' director Tohru Horii mention XII will aimed for an older audience and will be much darker, some people interpreted it as that they aiming for XII to launch on the PS5, Xbox Series and PC, and maybe a Switch 2 version will arrive much later
@@jaretco6423 I haven't seen any sales numbers for those remakes. But speaking about them, I always found it kind of interesting how Nintendo distributed and published those remakes outside of Japan instead of S-E. Ever since the NES era Nintendo has always tried to raise awareness of the Dragon Quest games outside of Japan
@@jaretco6423 DQ7 3DS sold about half as well as original Playstation version and generally well-received. DQ8 3DS was down to about 40%, probably because it followed the Android/iOS release while DQ7 was ahead of it in Japan.
I don’t think Square has ever been a great business company. They’ve made so many mistakes throughout the years. They’re more of a creative minded company. You look at Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, which was an epic fail. You look at Forspoken, which was somewhat of a modern version of the Spirits Within situation. Both of those works were Square trying to dabble in aesthetics that they don’t really specialize in. They’re Square products, yes, but they had western creative leads. I don’t believe western creatives are inherently bad like some people do, but you don’t go to a Square Enix product for that. You want Square Enix works to be imaginative, creative and grand. The grand part is probably why they partner with PlayStation instead of Nintendo. Square dreams big, not only when it comes to story and experiences, but also on a visual level. I’ve been very happy with a lot of Square’s works in the last 10 years. Nier: Automata, Dragon Quest XI, Kingdom Hearts III, Final Fantasy VII Remake, Nier Replicant ver.1.22, Neo: The World Ends With You, Final Fantasy XVI and Final Fantasy VII Rebirth - these games are all excellent and feel substantial, in my opinion. But Square also does release games that I simply do not care about, like Star Ocean, Saga, or the Mana series. I don’t know if those series will ever really catch on. Square has also developed two different engines in the last twenty years, Crystal Tools and Luminous, that they’ve pretty much abandoned. Square Enix makes all these business related proclamations, plans, and promises, but ultimately they usually just end up doing whatever they want. TL;DR: Let Square Enix cook?
Perhaps they can make a new Nier game. The last one sold pretty we... oh wait, Platinum Games just lost a lot of key staff including Takahisa Taura of Nier Automata and Astral Chain fame.
PlatinumGames didn't make the first Nier game, so don't necessarily have to be involved with a new one. SE has already kept in touch with director Yoko Taro since Nier Automata by publishing his Voice of Cards games.
They should have made Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth for the Switch. Companies bent on the ‘highest quality’ graphics on the ‘highest performing’ machine is beyond me?! 😅
A) Sony's exclusivity contract (and money) kept that from happening. B) Switch 1 probably not up to the task of making it look anywhere close enough to PS4 version or Remake to be a worthwhile port, let alone the extra step up for Rebirth. Also need to be aware that when the Remake trilogy was greenlit and Sony was brought on board to effectively co-finance the project in the mid-2010s, betting on PS4 and the future PS5 was a smart bet to make. PS4 certainly remained so, but PS5 hasn't proven to be as strong. I can agree with you that third-party developer projects started since 2019 or 2020 (by the time Switch proved to be a hit) that target only PS5 and Xbox are riskier ventures, but when Sony comes calling with a half-billion dollars for exclusivity to three games, its really hard to say no. And if a condition of getting that money is to make these games the most visually impressive as they can be, then that's what's going to happen. (I don't know if Sony actually demanded that, but its likely they put pressure on SquareEnix to do so.)
"What happened to Square Enix"? Theyre a jrpg company that stopped putting their biggest jrpgs on the one system jrpgs sell best on and dominates the Japanese market, and instead focused on putting their boggest titles on an increasingly western platform wherein jrpgs are not nearly as popular as they were two decades ago
I once again say that Dragon Quest is too important culturally to Japan and should be taken away from this trash company and brought over to Nintendo for safe keeping. Hori family will retain some ownership for control if they wish. DQ would thrive as a Nintendo IP because they have Xenoblade but they don’t have an old fashioned rpg games series unless they resurrect Golden sun. But really you could have the DQ team make you a Golden Sun game. I think SquareEnix would go for this because they would have a huge cash injection from the sale of they’re part of Dragon Quest.
@goldmemberpb Pokemon is crap now. They haven't done anything to make the series good again since Gen. 5. Also, Paper Mario, Mario + Rabbids and other Mario RPG'S are there too. You know.
@@jaretco6423 Ok, but you were talking about Nintendo not having any old school JRPG series. Pokemon not being good in your eyes have nothing to do with it. And I would not really call the Mario RPGs old and storied as they are just way too few and far between to create that kind of legacy.
@goldmemberpb Mario RPG'S not old and storied. Super Mario RPG came out in 1996 and Paper Mario 64 started in early 2001. I think they should at least deserve to be Nintendo's main RPG title. Not just Pokemon. There's also Fire Emblem; which was Nintendo's first RPG series since it started back in the early 90's.
How do the rights for Dragon Quest work exactly? I know that Enix didn't really own the rights, but there's a reason why all of their games were published by them, despite Armor Project owning the IP
Not sure what you meant by going woke "this year". if you mean censorship of the female warrior, well that was done in 2022 with Treasures. if you mean Type A/B vs Male/Female, that was done in DQ X Offline in the same year (though called Style 1/2 there). If you're under the impression that they both happened this year with Dragon Quest III HD-2D, then you've been duped by all the misinformation spread.
Whats funny is Squeenix wanted to work again with Nintendo on the GBA (apparently Sony didnt fulfill some of the promises they made to Square with regards to fees/royalty), but former president Yamauchi didnt want them (after leaving N64 for Playstation).
It was only under Satoru Iwata when they got back in (after Yamauchi's retirement).
I always thought Square came back making games on Nintendo consoles only after they merged with Enix, since Enix kept publishing games on the Nintendo 64 and Game Boy Color, so there wasn't any bad blood between Nintendo and Enix
Still, I think there's only one Squaresoft title for the Game Boy Advance, a Chocobo spin-off game
@@pablocasas5906 wym one Square title on the GBA, theres tons of them...
@@waffle.23 I said "Squaresoft", there was only game published by Squaresoft on the GBA before they merged with Enix, after that there were various games published by Square-Enix on the GBA
@@pablocasas5906 okay but theres still a few, FF tactics and FF 1,2 for example. Or did you not count them cuz theyre ports ?
@@waffle.23 Final Fantasy Tactics Advance was a brand new game but it was released after the merger between Square and Enix, I think it was released in 2003. Final Fantasy I & II Dawn of Souls was released in 2004 or 2005, I don't remember that well.
I think Square-Enix also made a remake of the first game in the Mana series for the GBA back in '03 and there was also that Kingdom Hearts spin-off title. I think most of Square's library on the GBA were ports of old Super NES games
Every line after "As part of our efforts to optimize our development footprint" I can't take seriously.
You listen to a Nintendo Exec interview and they use words like "Fun" and "play" and "creativity" without shame.
This corporate techno jargon is really telling.
The fact that without the only instance of the word "game" (which could be easily remove with just keeping "developpement"), you can't know what it's about is really concerning.
I know it's only a single answer in a Q&A, thus within a broader context, but it's still bad that there isn't a single "gaming" keyword.
Could I suggest a video on level 5, perhaps? Seeing how most of their games were intrinsically linked to nintendo from 2007 to 2016, and how their state nowadays is a bit worrying, I think it could make for an interesting analysis
Agreed. I'd be particularly interested in the history of the Professor Layton series. I don't know how they did it, but through some alchemy they managed to release a title every year for 6 years back in the days of the DS and 3DS and they were all absolutely fantastic (until Katrielle Layton, perhaps).
@@joshpetzoldt6344yeah, same thing for inazuma eleven. It’s impressive how much they were able to pump out in such a short timespan
For professor layton games at least, I think it’s because they’re extremely simple in their structure. There’s very little use of 3d graphics, and its point and click nature makes it very easy to work with
The puzzles were definitely the most complicated to develop, but a good portion of them only require you to press a button, enter a number, or circle something. So it doesn’t seem to be very time consuming overall
Interesting suggestion and I agree it would be interesting. I'll add it to my big list of suggestions/ideas but it's quite far out of my wheelhouse so would require a lot of research. Could be a fair few months off but I agree it's worth a look.
@nintendoforecast You could do it to coincided with the release of the new Professor Layton game, which is due to come out sometime next year.
You should continue with this and explore the history of Nintendo’s relations with certain third-party companies. The Sega video is bound to be juicy.
Juicy? Why do you say that?
Juicy? Why do you say that?
@@stripedrajang3571 I think it's due to some third-parties, particularly many Japanese one, tend to to avoid making or porting games for Nintendo systems, despite the fact they could be quite successful
In regards to SEGA, one of their former top developers/producer, Nagoshi, was said to mention that he didn't want the Yakuza games to appear on Nintendo consoles because of Yakuza's 1+2 failure on WiiU and that he believed Nintendo's userbase was comprised by children and families and that the Yakuza's series is only for mature players. But now that Kiwami sold incredibly well on Switch it seems the games only needed to be released on a successful console. Also, I find it weird that SEGA hasn't tried to release any Sakura Wars on the Switch
Aside from that, there's something interesting that a developer from CyberConnect 2 mention, he said that the Japanese gaming market is everybody against Nintendo
I hope Square learns from Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth. They were able to put out a GotY level game with a 3 and a half year development cycle. Just by smart asset reuse and good chemistry with the development team.
Honestly FF7R should be a lesson to the wider industry on these regards
It's a shame though that the game has sold far less than FF7 Remake though- perhaps it should be expected since it's no longer lockdown and people would drop off a direct sequel for a far more expensive console, but a game that's just so much more and which I had more fun with selling less... you want that to be rewarded.
Falcom games + Yakuza games in a nutshell ahah.
They failed on that project, better luck next time-but I have the feeling they won't learn from this defeat.😮💨
FF7 Remake project sucks. Square Enix is terrible and resting on the laurels of the Squaresoft days. It's SAD! SQUARE was Hironobu Sakaguchi! The company has been trying to just cling to life since he left!
Why square persisted with exclusivity with Sony is beyond me
Sony paid them a lot for the timed exclusivity
To be fair, Square Enix has a HUGE history with Sony during the PS1-PS2 era that really helped them gain popularity worldwide.
@@user-be3qc7re9oYeah...the Ps1 and Ps2 era definitely the golden age of square enix games.
Well they were hella popular before PS existed. It’s only in US where they grew.
In retrospective, I found it very incredible how Squaresoft cut ties with Nintendo very abruptly during the Nintendo 64 era and how they only came back when they merged with Enix, since Enix at least kept publishing games for the Nintendo 64 and Game Boy Color. I can understand why Squaresoft didn't want to develop games for the cartridge-based N64, but they lost a huge opportunity of making games for the Game Boy Color, Enix had a lot of success on the GBC with remakes of the first 3 Dragon Quest titles, its DQ Monster spin-off and other games like Star Ocean. It seemed like Squaresoft wanted nothing with Nintendo, since they opted to work with Bandai making games for the WonderSwan
On AI usage, it is fair to say they've already failed in that front given how it was used in Foamstars and how poorly it was received
What happened to Foamstars anyways
@AnimeXFever54 played well.and does everything it's supposed to do
However people simply aren't interested
🤷♂️😢
@@pogoacct8611 PS5 exclusive = DoA
@@AnimeXFever54I believe it's also playable on PS4. A part of me suspects it was made to fulfill a sort of "we tried [x types of things investors ask about]", and then sent out to die, deliberately. A bit of a conspiracy theory, amd without much to back it up, though.
I didn't expect you to make a video on Square Enix but I'm glad you did. Their main issues as I see it are their atrocious management and their questionable investments. Creative freedom for their game producers is great, but remaking FF7 in 3 parts on AAA budget over 10 years was not a sound financial decision. And that's even before we get into the exclusivity deal for those games and their other recent AAA games (FF16, Forespoken). I feel like a sharp contraction of Playstation's marketshare in Japan contributed to those games underperforming, as well as quite frankly SQEX overestimating the importance of FF to modern gamers. I feel like FF's fanbase has been aging out and SQEX has failed over several console generations to get more younger gamers onboard.
Of course, some of this will be addressed by SQEX "aggressively pursuing a multiplatform strategy".
Something you didn't mention here is their obstinate push into cryptocurrency and NFTs in recent years, which they have also burned money on. It was brought up by the previous president in 3 of his new years letters before he was replaced, and was highlighted in all their previous financial reports except the most recent ones. The new president Takashi Kiryu was headhunted from Dentsu specifically because he is a crypto bro.
Don't be fooled though just because they don't mention it as much it doesn't mean they have completely stopped pursuing NFTs (in the face of the collapse of that market). Their NFT "game" Symbiogenesis is still going although I think only around 50% of the total NFTs have been sold. In my opinion they need to stop wasting money on this crap and refocus on their successful areas like their book and manga publishing.
100% this
Kinda curious now- I know they had that embarrassing Portopia AI game and the NFT game, but how much money was honestly invested in that? I know that we'd rather have no money be invested in it at all, but it feels in the larger scope that so little money and marketing was invested there that it seems they were products made just so they could tell hype-horny investors "noooo we're tooootally researching this hot new trend, we're suuuper-invested in it long-term please give us more cash without witholding it if we don't throw away - I mean invest in your new favorite thing". Like, I'd be worried if they were making NFT's in FF14, that'd be a major change, but so far it really doesn't look like they've spent a lot on it.
Hope this is part 1 of more. Could really use looks at the SquareEnix third-party contractors (and some recently strained relationships with them), the merchandising angle, the publishing of western games in Japan angle, what non-game businesses SquareEnix owns (such as Luida's Bar restaurants and Dragon Quest Island theme park), close corporate partners like Lawsons, and of course investor reactions such as the worry about a lack of projects in pipelines following the cancellations and selloffs (i.e., fewer games coming down the line, but ideally higher quality and better-selling.)
@@lilisaur I know that Enix has it's own manga publishing imprint, Gangan Comics. Manga series like Fullmetal Alchemist and Soul Eater were publised in Shonen Gangan
@@pablocasas5906 Yeah I'd forgotten that piece. Very conglomerated company. But all these strong non-game assets also allowed SquareEnix to weather the last several years of big-time busts that probably would have bankrupted other publishers. Game development may be hemorrhaging money but the other parts of the company are still raking in the cash.
Yes! I've been waiting for this one.
SQUARE ENIX is definitely in a weird conundrum.
atleast they are trying to fix stuff unlike ubisoft or any other woke company out there square has shown it is willing to adapt and listen
@@sanane66543I don't think politics is relevant here.
@@sanane66543Sadly, much of it feels like half-measures (don't forget that Square's CEO wants to go into NFTs and all that BS). If Square REALLY wants to find their heart again, they need more developers and workers with the heart and passion of Yoshi-P (and they ARE out there) and push back against the modern Western nonsense that no one actually wants (which is where a lot of the dev bloat is actually coming from).
@@shinigamimiroku3723 true but afther playing rebirth its clear to see they listen.... fans wanted open world and they delivered. also its very good game prob the best they made in past 6 years
@@sanane66543 Have they? Have to agree with above assessment that its half-measures. One of their pillars for growth was expanding Dragon Quest brand in the west, which is super popular and likely top 5 gaming IP in Japan, but well outside the top 30 in the west. Its biggest problem is lack of publicity and advertising. So what did they do leading up to Dragon Quest III HD-2D's launch? Two Direct spots and a very brief appearance at PAX West (for which Life is Strange was the key game on display.) This is dwarfed by the amount spent advertising Final Fantasy XXI and FF XIV's Dawntrail expansions recently. They've even spent more advertising Fantasian in western markets than they did Dragon Quest III HD-2D. What they say they're going to do and what they actually do, seem to be at odds.
The idea that Square Enix is considering AI for their future development in their games feel like a bad idea. Maybe less focus on multiple IP and just go for a few liken3 or 4.
Awesome new kind of content for the channel! Square is very important to Nintendo's legacy and seeing how drastically different the company is now from Squaresoft is interesting. I've been looking more into their recent business decisions as well and am worried but hopefully optimistic they can attain the stability of Sega/Atlus and Monolithsoft soon.
If Square was marketing Final Fantasy with Nintendo and bringing their mainline games to all platforms day one then the franchise would be doing so much better.
The thing is that Square-Enix was sort of cultivating more brand awareness for the Final Fantasy brand during the GameCube, Game Boy Advance era, but only regarding remakes and some spin-off titles, the GCN only saw FF: Crystal Chronicles while the GBA got remakes/ports of games such as FF I & II, IV, V and VI, and the Tactics Advance game. There wasn't a lot of FF on the Wii aside from a sort of Crystal Chronicles spin-off and a downloadable sequel to IV, while the DS saw 3D remakes of III and IV. It was during the WiiU and 3DS era that there was another sort of drought in regards to a lack of presence of FF on Nintendo consoles, with only FF 4 Heroes of Life arriving on the 3DS and there was also that rhythm game spin-off, the only other major FF presence back then was Cloud's inclusion as a playable character in Smash Bros. for WiiU and 3DS
The thing is that it's been 27 years since Square started developed mainline FF games only for PlayStation (with XIII and XV being the only exceptions), I don't know if the higher-ups at Square-Enix don't consider Nintendo a viable platform for big FF experience and that they just use the Switch as a dumping ground for old titles, since it wasn't until the Switch that Nintendo m players finally managed to experience games like VII, VIII, IX, X, X-2 and XII, while the previous 6 titles were ported much later. Though sometimes I wonder if developers at Square-Enix believe that Nintendo players prefer JRPGs that are closer in style to old-school NES and Super NES experiences, that's why games like Bravely Default and Second, and Octopath Traveller released first on Nintendo hardware. While it would be possible for S-E to make a much bigger game, similar in scope to FF X or XIII on Nintendo consoles, I don't think they would want to take the risk
The mainline final fantasy games CANT run on Nintendo hardware
@@pogoacct8611 well that's because the developers at Square-Enix in charge of the mainline FF games designs the games to be AAA expriences that pushes the graphical envelope of current gen consoles, while Armor Project, the team responsible for the mainline Dragon Quest series, always prioritize the mainline games to run on the most popular console in Japan, that's why Dragon Quest IX was developed for the DS, DQ X for the Wii and why they made two versions of DQ XI, one for the PS4 and another one for the 3DS
I can't imagine a new mainline FF game being developed with the Switch 2 limitations in mind, even if gets released simultaneously on the PS5 (or PS6), Xbox and PC, S-E executives want FF to be a next-gen experience, the game equivalent of a summer blockbuster movie and belive people would buy new, more powerful hardware, just to experience it
Nintendo’s ❤ will go on 😂
Good morning gamers.
Good afternoon to you too!
Much of the "plan" sounds very similar to that outlined by WB, and also in keeping with Unisoft too. It's all very depressing, the management / investment led approach and I'm sceptical that leaning more into that side of the business will yield better results. It's very much at odds with the speech made by Swen Vincke at the game awards, but I'm hoping that a few industry bigwigs might have actually listened to what he was saying
Square in name only
Square Enix is a pretty neat collaborator, especially on SMRPG, and still having Monopoly on Mario’s only basketball series. I hope Nintendo will let them work on more stuff in the future.
Basketball series? Wasn't Mario Hoops 3 on 3/Mario Slam Basketball on the DS the only one or is there another one I've forgotten?
That reminds me, when did the last Itadaki/Fortune Street Game came out? The series was started by Enix, but when they merged with Squaresoft there were crossovers between Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy on those games, and there was even a Dragon Quest + Mario Itadaki Street game
With the huge success Konami had with Momotaro Dentetsu and how the latest Mario Party is selling, I wonder why S-E didn't make a new Fortune Street for the Switch
@@joshpetzoldt6344 there's also Mario Sports Mix on the Wii (yes technically it isn't just basketball but it's still the same series).
I predict that IF they decide to bring all their big AAA jrpgs to Switch 2 they will recover big-time. Then port older games like FF13, FF15 and they will TRHIVE again. Playstation community changed very much from the PS1 and ps2 era. The PS community is not a good JRPG community imo and what I am observing. Much more casual (the default console for FIFA , COD and Madden) and if they are more into gaming as a main hobby they tend to play SIE or second party games first and then maybe they throw an eye on Square games. Yes it's not everyone but the majority, prove is the abissmal sales of the newer FF games.
Does anyone actually care for FF 13 or 15?
@@user-be3qc7re9oI liked them, but they were mismanaged. FF13 looked great and played great but the story was weird as hell. FF15 was released unfinished and the DLC episodes got lost in the shuffle. The story was pretty good and melancholic, it deserves reevaluating.
@@whatwhyhownoway
As if Square Enix would do that.
Nope
@@user-be3qc7re9o I remember hearing some rumors that developers at S-E tried to downport XV to the Switch, but as absurd as it sounds, it seems the main issue was that the Luminous Engine does not run well on the Switch. At least they released the Pocket Edition
Regarding if there's any demand for FF XIII to be available on Nintendo consoles, I think S-E would like for all mainline FF games to be available on Nintendo systems. While they have ported and remade the original six FF games that debuted on Nintendo consoles during the GBA and DS eras, that was years ago and Nintendo players were only able to play the games from VII to XII only until 2019. I'm sure S-E would like to cultivate a FF audience on Nintendo consoles
Square Enix has had constant internal problems since merging. Looking at the stock I think it shows. In two decades the stock has risen by about 100%. That might sound like a lot, but that means they're in the same boat as Ubisoft. Ubisoft's stock is in the gutter right now. Square Enix has released some great games, but a lot of them were made by studios they bought or comissioned.
Worth noting that HD game sales being down doesn’t necessarily mean all games in that division bombed; it's more likely that a number of titles in that division underperformed enough to drag down any that did meet expectations. We don't know which, since we don't have concrete sales numbers.
I'm hopeful that they can recover confidence in releasing smaller, AA-budget games made by smaller teams, once they realize that going multiplatform is far more of a boon than their actions suggest they previously assumed.
they've lost their way if they're going to spend half a decade on a game and then have it underperform - how many times can a company do that - makes me wonder about internal corruption
I think Square will focus more on mid budget games like Octopath Traveler and Bravely Default maybe with different ips like a science fiction themed RPG or something since Octopath 2 didn't sell that well. But those kinda games are lower risk than something like Final Fantasy 16 that has a ridiculous budget. That said they still gotta go big with their large franchises. Like main line Final Fantasy games are bound to sell well. Hopefully, the next games in those franchises will be artistically forfilling too. God bless, Jesus saves. ❤️❤❤
It doesn't sound very good to me, and I feel for their employees who will have to endure the corporate management hijinks that are supposed to boost efficiency. I liked how they have operated these past years with many experimental titles and care spread to lesser known IPs, but it doesn't sound like that will keep up.
Thankfully Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake has been Squeenix's biggest game of the year and most of the sales are on the Switch.
@@thepartyoftea but it also seems like S-E didn't produce a lot of physical copies and while the game is selling great in Japan, they haven't managed to sell over a million copies on the Switch, which I think it could've been possible considering both the 3DS and PS4 versions of DQ XI managed to sell over a million copies both in their debut week
What happened to Square Soft is the real question
I don’t think I’ve ever had such a hot and cold relationship with a publisher like I have with Square Enix over the years. I felt betrayed when Square jumped ship to PlayStation. I still think FF7 is the most overrated game.
Chrono Trigger is the greatest game of all time ever. Dragon Quest VIII is a masterpiece. FFIV and VI and DQV are all incredible.
What worst after Nintendo started making CD systems the jerk of the president refuse to make games for those systems. Imaging being butthurt over a disagreement three decades ago just to leave money on the table due being a angry child not moving on to make better business decisions.
There is still a lot of hope for square, they just need to cut down the output and increase quality
From what I've seen, Dragon Quest 3 2D-HD Remake and Fantasian are doing successfully well. And with Dragon Quest 1 & 2 2D-HD Remake being on the horizon, Square might go too bleak. Who knows.
Today the total number of U.S. game sales from November was published and Dragon Quest III HD-2D managed to chart, but only among the Top Ten best-selling Switch games, the PlayStation and Xbox versions were nowhere to be seen, perhaps this was due more to the fact that Dragon Quest games have a stronger pressence on Nintendo consoles compared to its competitors, with the exception of the Dragon Quest VII which released on PSOne and VIII which released on PS2, I know that Dragon Quest XI was released only on PS4 outside of Japan, but the Japan-only 3DS version managed to outsold it by a couple more units
I don't know if this serves as evidence that Dragon Quest XII is being developed for the Switch's successor, because there's been some sayings, rumors and speculations that Enix and Armor Project want the series to have a big breakthrough moment outside of Japan, similar to how Final Fantasy VII, Persona 5 and Monster Hunter: World were for their respective franchises, but people are arguing that that would mean Armor Project is aiming for a sort of AAA experience with DQXII, espcically since they have announced that they are developing it using Unreal 5, while series' director Tohru Horii mention XII will aimed for an older audience and will be much darker, some people interpreted it as that they aiming for XII to launch on the PS5, Xbox Series and PC, and maybe a Switch 2 version will arrive much later
@pablocasas5906 Didn't DQ7 & DQ8 remakes on 3DS sold any better?
@@jaretco6423 I haven't seen any sales numbers for those remakes. But speaking about them, I always found it kind of interesting how Nintendo distributed and published those remakes outside of Japan instead of S-E. Ever since the NES era Nintendo has always tried to raise awareness of the Dragon Quest games outside of Japan
@@jaretco6423 DQ7 3DS sold about half as well as original Playstation version and generally well-received. DQ8 3DS was down to about 40%, probably because it followed the Android/iOS release while DQ7 was ahead of it in Japan.
I don’t think Square has ever been a great business company. They’ve made so many mistakes throughout the years. They’re more of a creative minded company. You look at Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, which was an epic fail. You look at Forspoken, which was somewhat of a modern version of the Spirits Within situation. Both of those works were Square trying to dabble in aesthetics that they don’t really specialize in. They’re Square products, yes, but they had western creative leads. I don’t believe western creatives are inherently bad like some people do, but you don’t go to a Square Enix product for that. You want Square Enix works to be imaginative, creative and grand. The grand part is probably why they partner with PlayStation instead of Nintendo. Square dreams big, not only when it comes to story and experiences, but also on a visual level.
I’ve been very happy with a lot of Square’s works in the last 10 years. Nier: Automata, Dragon Quest XI, Kingdom Hearts III, Final Fantasy VII Remake, Nier Replicant ver.1.22, Neo: The World Ends With You, Final Fantasy XVI and Final Fantasy VII Rebirth - these games are all excellent and feel substantial, in my opinion. But Square also does release games that I simply do not care about, like Star Ocean, Saga, or the Mana series. I don’t know if those series will ever really catch on.
Square has also developed two different engines in the last twenty years, Crystal Tools and Luminous, that they’ve pretty much abandoned.
Square Enix makes all these business related proclamations, plans, and promises, but ultimately they usually just end up doing whatever they want.
TL;DR: Let Square Enix cook?
I hope they update the PC version of og FFVII and finally give it the 3x speed and random encounter disabling without mods
I'm still hoping the do faithful remake of the 7h Saga.
Perhaps they can make a new Nier game. The last one sold pretty we...
oh wait, Platinum Games just lost a lot of key staff including Takahisa Taura of Nier Automata and Astral Chain fame.
Yoko also left the studio years ago
PlatinumGames didn't make the first Nier game, so don't necessarily have to be involved with a new one. SE has already kept in touch with director Yoko Taro since Nier Automata by publishing his Voice of Cards games.
Shout outs to underrated game by them paranormasight the seven mysteries of honjo and. Ogre tactics Reborn. Those ones are so Underrated
So all I'm hearing is, expect a bunch of failures from SquareEnix over the next few years
They should have made Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth for the Switch.
Companies bent on the ‘highest quality’ graphics on the ‘highest performing’ machine is beyond me?! 😅
A) Sony's exclusivity contract (and money) kept that from happening.
B) Switch 1 probably not up to the task of making it look anywhere close enough to PS4 version or Remake to be a worthwhile port, let alone the extra step up for Rebirth.
Also need to be aware that when the Remake trilogy was greenlit and Sony was brought on board to effectively co-finance the project in the mid-2010s, betting on PS4 and the future PS5 was a smart bet to make. PS4 certainly remained so, but PS5 hasn't proven to be as strong. I can agree with you that third-party developer projects started since 2019 or 2020 (by the time Switch proved to be a hit) that target only PS5 and Xbox are riskier ventures, but when Sony comes calling with a half-billion dollars for exclusivity to three games, its really hard to say no. And if a condition of getting that money is to make these games the most visually impressive as they can be, then that's what's going to happen. (I don't know if Sony actually demanded that, but its likely they put pressure on SquareEnix to do so.)
"What happened to Square Enix"?
Theyre a jrpg company that stopped putting their biggest jrpgs on the one system jrpgs sell best on and dominates the Japanese market, and instead focused on putting their boggest titles on an increasingly western platform wherein jrpgs are not nearly as popular as they were two decades ago
Good morning everyone. At least they are not panicking like Ubisoft
Blackrock happened to the whole gaming industry sadly
that Forspoken flop
I once again say that Dragon Quest is too important culturally to Japan and should be taken away from this trash company and brought over to Nintendo for safe keeping. Hori family will retain some ownership for control if they wish. DQ would thrive as a Nintendo IP because they have Xenoblade but they don’t have an old fashioned rpg games series unless they resurrect Golden sun. But really you could have the DQ team make you a Golden Sun game.
I think SquareEnix would go for this because they would have a huge cash injection from the sale of they’re part of Dragon Quest.
Uh...Pokemon says hi as the old school Nintendo jrpg series.
@goldmemberpb Pokemon is crap now. They haven't done anything to make the series good again since Gen. 5. Also, Paper Mario, Mario + Rabbids and other Mario RPG'S are there too. You know.
@@jaretco6423 Ok, but you were talking about Nintendo not having any old school JRPG series. Pokemon not being good in your eyes have nothing to do with it.
And I would not really call the Mario RPGs old and storied as they are just way too few and far between to create that kind of legacy.
@goldmemberpb Mario RPG'S not old and storied. Super Mario RPG came out in 1996 and Paper Mario 64 started in early 2001. I think they should at least deserve to be Nintendo's main RPG title. Not just Pokemon. There's also Fire Emblem; which was Nintendo's first RPG series since it started back in the early 90's.
How do the rights for Dragon Quest work exactly? I know that Enix didn't really own the rights, but there's a reason why all of their games were published by them, despite Armor Project owning the IP
I would have bought 3 SquareEnix games this year, if they hadn't gone woke. I actually had them preordered, and then cancelled them.
I'm sorry you're too right-wing for their games. Your loss, I suppose.
@joshpetzoldt6344 LOL. Not my loss at all. Playing a game made by lunatics would not be enjoyable.
Not sure what you meant by going woke "this year". if you mean censorship of the female warrior, well that was done in 2022 with Treasures. if you mean Type A/B vs Male/Female, that was done in DQ X Offline in the same year (though called Style 1/2 there). If you're under the impression that they both happened this year with Dragon Quest III HD-2D, then you've been duped by all the misinformation spread.
Final Fantasy 7 has you playing as eco terrorists that are explicitly portrayed as righteous, to say they're only now woke is new levels of idiotic.
For real, ff7r was hot trash and dragon quest was a let down.
Why is Square Enix paying MILLIONS to SweetBabyInc even tho they are ruining all their franchises?
They partnered with Sweet Baby Inc. Consequences followed.
Nice try, but wrong.
@@Aries73It’s correct.
@@SuperFowlMouth Only in the minds of neckbeards and the grifters they follow.
@@SuperFowlMouthMe when I spread misinformation:
@@LamiaLoverIt’s correct information
Square enix is on its end times, hope will die, I lost my faith in humanity
👏