Do you approve of Square Enix's acquisition of Eidos?

[nirojan]

Well it's almost been a year since the acquisition and Eidos is already kinda in the history books. Eidos was a top Western developer/publisher and now merging with the Japanese megagiant Developer/Publisher has brought about some massive changes. Initially SE said that it would allow Eidos to continue Dev/Pub and wouldn't meddle in it's affairs, but since then SE has had a change of heart and merged Eidos with SE Europe and completely abolished Eidos as a Publisher. Now i ask you (cause if your on a final fantasy forum chances are you've supported Square through thick and thin) if you think SE should have just left Eidos alone. Me personally think this should never have happened. SE has been pumping out lack-luster games of late and the way Wada is talking nowadays i think he wants to move away from tradition Japanese roots to appeal to the broader audience(For the $$$ of course). Then again on the flip side Eidos will have more funding and with the merger a bit more personnel and of course SE will provide better advertising campaign and more Flesh time around media outlets. looking at Deux Ex: Human Revolution I gotta say I'm mighty impressed. But still.... it will seem wiered when you pick up a game and instead of Eidos on the bottom right corner, we'll see the oh-too-recognizable logo of SE!

How do You feel?

[Slothy]

Eidos was a top Western developer/publisher

That's debatable. They'd been gradually losing ground in the market for years. Many of their more popular series hadn't been touched in half a decade or more, and games like Kane & Lynch weren't doing them any favours. It's only very, very recently that they've started to put out worthwhile titles again and even those have been fairly few and far between.


Initially SE said that it would allow Eidos to continue Dev/Pub and wouldn't meddle in it's affairs, but since then SE has had a change of heart and merged Eidos with SE Europe and completely abolished Eidos as a Publisher. Now i ask you (cause if your on a final fantasy forum chances are you've supported Square through thick and thin) if you think SE should have just left Eidos alone.

A name change could literally mean nothing in terms of Eidos operations. It could just be a matter of consolidating everything under the much more lucrative SE brand name. Eidos is a name that hasn't been synonymous with quality in years (debates about SE's quality aside) so getting rid of the name makes sense. Functionally though, that could be all it is, and operations could continue as normal for the people at Eidos. There's literally no indication of anything worth getting worked up over.


looking at Deux Ex: Human Revolution I gotta say I'm mighty impressed.

I'm actually not impressed at all by it since everything we've seen looks like pre-rendered cinematics and if the game is cut scene heavy I will pass on it entirely. I'm tired of developers relying heavily on cut scenes over more immersive and interactive story-telling methods, like those used in the original game.

As for how I feel about the merger, I could care less. Like I said, Eidos hasn't been a development or publishing powerhouse in years and I could care less if SE purchases a company. If good games come out of it then cool, but if not then it's no loss.

[Jessweeee♪]

It's cool, just bring back Gex.

[Rase]

As long as Thief 4 comes out I approve.

[Mo-Nercy]

Some more Legacy of Kain games would be good too.

[Slothy]

Some more Legacy of Kain games would be good too.

Without Amy Hennig I'd rather they not touch the series again, unless someone comes along who could finish it off while some how topping her writing. The odds of that are so slim though that they're almost better off leaving well enough alone if you ask me until such a person is found.

[VeloZer0]

I'm actually not impressed at all by it since everything we've seen looks like pre-rendered cinematics and if the game is cut scene heavy I will pass on it entirely. I'm tired of developers relying heavily on cut scenes over more immersive and interactive story-telling methods, like those used in the original game.
I'm sure the merger with SE should help with that.

Honestly, I haven't been following Eidos very much at all, so I have no idea what is going on.

[Bolivar]

Don't really care about the corporate workings. I do think Wada is insane, so it may have an adverse effect but it looks like they might be moving in a better direction with this new downloadable Lara Croft game.

But they've already lost Batman, now that Warner Bros. is publishing the next one. Shame.

I wanna see a new Legacy of Kain, but like Vivi22 said, Amy Hennig is more than likely what made the last couple games so great. Although I think she only came on halfway through the series, I've never played the earlier games, so I can't tell you if those were good or not. Honestly I wouldn't mind seeing some new game director with a vision taking the helm (and a stab at it :) )

Still, it would be awesome if Ms. Hennig worked on it, which would mean you might need Sony to co-publish it/Naught Dog co-develop it, making it a PS3 exclusive so they could take advantage of TEH POWAH OF TEH CELL!!!

[Slothy]

I wanna see a new Legacy of Kain, but like Vivi22 said, Amy Hennig is more than likely what made the last couple games so great. Although I think she only came on halfway through the series, I've never played the earlier games, so I can't tell you if those were good or not. Honestly I wouldn't mind seeing some new game director with a vision taking the helm (and a stab at it :) )

She worked on all of them except Blood Omen 2 actually. She assisted in development of Blood Omen (the first game) according to wikipedia, and wrote and directed both Soul Reavers and Defiance. I can't say if she had too much of a hand in making the original Blood Omen as awesome as it was, but I will say that the one game she didn't direct or write not only wasn't that great a game (kind of clunky and filled with glitches, some of them game breaking), but it wasn't even the well written, creating a bunch of plot holes and such that they tried to smooth over with talk of an alternate timeline that really just made the story a bit of an overly complicated confused mess.

Now I'm not trying to say that another game director couldn't do something awesome with the series, but given how often that actually happens and how integral she was in making the series what it was, part of me hopes they never try just the same.