SE doesn't seem to care about Western fans: A complaint

[Freya]

September 17, 2002 is the release date for Kingdom Hearts in North America.

It's September 21, 2017. We passed the 15th anniversary officially.

The official SE Kingdom Hearts twitter (https://twitter.com/KINGDOMHEARTS/)? Hasn't been active since August 16th, 2017.

So one of their big series has its 15th anniversary. Now it was released earlier in JP of course but it's a mix of Disney and FF. Disney, an American company that has major roots in american society. You'd think they could at least post something about it. They had released a special anniversary version of the remasters earlier this year, you think they could at least put a "Happy birthday! get this now!" or something.

Their facebook has a post on Sept 18th but it's a random thing about their mobile game (KINGDOM HEARTS Union χ[Cross] it's about an invasion event going on in it) but again they didn't have anything since Aug 16th.

I know KH isn't their big flagship FF. But come on. The western markets use FB and Twitter a lot. The lack of support for existing games and cult favorites concerns me.

Staff interactions spoiler:
Back when Lightning Returns was coming out we actually had contact with SE's PR. They were trying to push to work with fans and fansites. I remember there was a DA art event even. They were actually interacting with western fans in lots of ways.

Now, we don't hear a peep out of SE and of all the connections I have with other fansties, they don't hear anything from them either. They've gone mums the word in the PR department.

I know they have a lot of other series now and so they can't just focus on KH or anything but a 15th anniversary is kind of a big deal.

I dunno I just feel they tried to connect with western fans but it didn't produce results RIGHT AWAY so they just pulled completely back and don't care about the western market.

I wanted to grumble when I noticed the KH thing and thought you guys may understand my complaints and wanted to know your thoughts too.

[Formalhaut]

I mean, just from a social media perspective (I help with the social media accounts for the library), having no new posts for that length of time is kinda bad.

And also, it's Kingdom Hearts. It isn't a neat number anniversary, but they should still do something for the 17th anniversary, especially as KHIII is actually getting closer to completion.

[Freya]

It's the 15th anniversary! usually the multiples of 5 are given more weight.

[Wolf Kanno]

They have a lot going on this year with it also being the FF series 30th Anniversary and technically it's FFV's 25th anniversary and FFVII's 20th. Not to mention Romancing SaGa's anniversary and FFTactics. I imagine the best fans can hope for with VII and KH is that SE might announce a release date for both of their new entries this year.

They were doing some events fro Mana and SaGa but good luck finding news about it since everyone ignores those series. Oddly enough, their biggest announcement for the celebration this year has been the Dissidia Arcade which is amusing because I remember feeling like SE was a bit underwhelming with the 20th anniversary of the series and that was also the same year Dissidia got released.

[Freya]

Yeah but the difference with all the different FF entries is that they are one of a SERIES while the KH birthday would be the birth of another series.

Generally i've been mostly underwhelmed about any of their anniversary stuff. I'm mostly judging of their Social Media and community interactions.

Take Blizzard for example. I laughed my butt off at the Overwatch twitter about "You've heard of elf on the shelf," joke they made yesterday. The blizzard accounts constantly interact with fans and it creates more unity WITH fans. They're more forgiving and more excited about new stuff. I feel like the company is more concerned and wants my attention because of this interaction

SE doesn't really care about fans or how fans feel about anything.

[maybee]

They're too busy trying to push FFXV DLC in everybody faces tbh.

[Wolf Kanno]

Yeah but the difference with all the different FF entries is that they are one of a SERIES while the KH birthday would be the birth of another series.

Generally i've been mostly underwhelmed about any of their anniversary stuff. I'm mostly judging of their Social Media and community interactions.

Take Blizzard for example. I laughed my butt off at the Overwatch twitter about "You've heard of elf on the shelf," joke they made yesterday. The blizzard accounts constantly interact with fans and it creates more unity WITH fans. They're more forgiving and more excited about new stuff. I feel like the company is more concerned and wants my attention because of this interaction

SE doesn't really care about fans or how fans feel about anything.

Squenix has always had a bad history communicating with fans, hell Japanese companies in general have a difficult time communicating with Western fans and there is usually a number of factors. I kind of feel like a lot of the Japanese game companies are still having a hard time adjusting to social media within a global context. None of this is helped that even creators are often under scrutiny by their companies to stay tight lipped about stuff and watch what they say.

As for KH getting little love, it may have more to do with waning interest in the West. I mean it's been five years since the last actual entry that expanded the story beyond the tech demo attached to 2.8 and it's been over ten years since KHII, which has since only seen spin-offs and prequels released on multiple systems that only the most dedicated bought. I know they re-released everything for recent PlayStation consoles but a lot has changed since 2006 and a lot of people have either moved on from console gaming (not to be confused with console games) and the series in general. A quick glance at the sales data for the HD re-relases (http://www.vgchartz.com/game/71760/kingdom-hearts/) compared to the originals (http://www.vgchartz.com/game/71760/kingdom-hearts/) shows a significant drop between the originals and the HD versions. Squenix could easily be looking at those numbers and thinking they may need to wait and see how KH3 does before deciding if this series will remain a pillar for the company as originally envisioned or if it's going to go the way as SaGa, Mana, Front Mission, and Bushido Blade and be that cool series they did back in the day.

Another idea is that SE is likely more concerned with trying to restore the image of FF, which is why they seem to be focusing more on it. Interviews with Tabata, Kitase, and other directors current and past concerning the series all point to the fact the series has an image problem, and since that's the main bread winner for the company, they may be trying to focus more on that.

The third idea is that Japan doesn't really think these anniversary's are as important as fans do, as Nomura mentioned earlier this year that he hadn't even planned anything for KH or VII's anniversary's though he would like too (http://www.siliconera.com/2016/10/12/tetsuya-nomura-shares-final-fantasy-vii-remake-kingdom-hearts-iii-hd-2-8/) if he wasn't so busy.

[Scruffington]

Square released 1.5 + 2.5 HD Remix for the PS4, as well as 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue. Both came out this year.

So technically SE already celebrated the 15 year anniversary of the series with a new title, and a collection that people have been wanting for years.

I think they've given KH fans a lot this year already.

[Sephiroth]

We got a release date for KH3 and a real trailer. Sounds real enough for me.

[Fynn]

Square released 1.5 + 2.5 HD Remix for the PS4, as well as 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue. Both came out this year.

So technically SE already celebrated the 15 year anniversary of the series with a new title, and a collection that people have been wanting for years.

I think they've given KH fans a lot this year already.

This

I never really felt SE were big with social media, even with FF none of their stuff really reaches me for some reason? So it's not like KH is neglected in that regard. The remixes, however, were marketed as celebration of the anniversary, so there's that

[Freya]

For example, on final fantasy vii's bday, PlayStation released a little tiny gif with cupcakes and the name and it got thoooousands of retweets and likes.

Zilch from SE.

You loyal fanboys missed the point. Disney is an American company. KH is the mix of a Japanese JRPg series with an American companies characters.

They shouldn't be like "ah well we mentioned something back for its Japan release, that was good enough."

To not even share a little picture of a happy birthday or feel like something such as that was even worth it is extremely telling on how they actually feel about their western fans. Disney is a western thing. Yes it now has branches in other countries but that's cause they actually have good PR.

Point is, their PR sucks when it comes to their western fronts. This is just one little thing I've noticed over the course of the years. I've had to actively pay attention to their behavior about this for almost 6 years now. It's gotten worse. Soo much worse.

[Fynn]

I wouldn't say their entire PR sucks. Just SMM. Ture, they could manage their social media better, but saying they don't care about the Western fanbase because of it is kind of reaching.

[Freya]

I used to be able to communicate with SE PR fairly easily. When new games were coming out they'd reach out to us for reviews. Last one I think we got was Tomb Raider. And that was from the EU branch. After our PR rep from the NA branch left/gotfired/whatever happened to them, they just stopped caring.

From the other fansite people I still know from when I met them in San Francisco, they also don't hear much from SE any more either.

[Fynn]

Maybe we're just needed anymore. They've ascended and bracing themselves for Instrumentality.

[Skyblade]

I wouldn't say their entire PR sucks. Just SMM. Ture, they could manage their social media better, but saying they don't care about the Western fanbase because of it is kind of reaching.

I disagree.

This is the company that has been routinely mocked for making announcements of announcements.

Yes, their entire PR sucks.

[Freya]

http://nerdist.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/PLEASE-BE-EXCITED-MEME-03172015.jpg

[Rocket Edge]

I get the feeling off Square that they don't have much of an idea what it takes to please their target audience. It's like after the 2004ish mark they forgot what makes FF great and alienate it's own fans.

It's 15 years since KH1, a hugely popular game and we still are waiting on a third installment with no proven release date. That's just deplorable scheduling and neglect on their part.

[Fynn]

Pretty sure they confirmed a 2018 release date

[Freya]

Nah it's just "Coming out in 2018". Not really that fully confirmed knowing SE's history with releases.

The Original Announcement Trailer was in June of 2013. 2014 we got another Trailer, but that's about it. 2015 we got a longer trailer but then pretty shhh but that one revealed the tangled location and finally some actual gameplay. Well we got another at Jump Fiesta at the end of the year then. But it was similar to the previous one in 2015. Then that last trailer was the Toy Story one recently. I don't think 2016 had anything?

Basically, similar issues here that was with XV. Announcement with a little graphic demo, hardly any news, bam a trailer with... gameplay or story? No news at all, "Please be excited" nothing nothing nothing Oh hay no really, we promise here's some more info!" nothing nothing nothing "we promise it's coming soon!" nothing nothing nothing.

They have a problem with announcing something too soon and then not following up with any news on it and prolonging development. So any hype that was there when announcing it has long gone due to the handling of development and PR after

[Freya]

KH specifically. It was only recently that we learned as well that mid way through they had to change to the Unreal Engine which messed with development. This prolonged it but as fans, we don't know anything about this issue and are just seeing that they're taking forever.

You know who else had this happen to them and their game super suffered from it? Bioware and Mass Effect: Andromeda. Midway change of the engine and it made them have to rush and screw up a bunch.

It's understandable that it's taking time when they do that kind of thing but the little trickle of info doesn't really provide the fans, whom would be buying it, any relief in the long dev times.

[Formalhaut]

The re-releases may have been produced to coincide with the 15th anniversary, but I agree in general that SE's social media could be better. Even if KH isn't their flagship, or their focus isn't on KH, it takes all of five minutes to make a birthday GIF or something.

But then, SE and social media go together like oil and water, don't they?

[Skyblade]

They have a problem with announcing something too soon and then not following up with any news on it and prolonging development. So any hype that was there when announcing it has long gone due to the handling of development and PR after

They have a problem with developing games so slowly that they make Nintendo look fast.

[maybee]

Nah it's just "Coming out in 2018". Not really that fully confirmed knowing SE's history with releases.


"Coming out in 2018 " is Square's way of saying " we HOPE that this comes out in 2018, but there's going to be a chance of a couple of delays "

[Wolf Kanno]

KHIII and VII Remake were largely announced to get fans back on board with the company after the disastrous XIV 1.0 and the major change-up with XV's development that angered a lot of people.

The other issue is that while Tabata and Yoshi-P were pretty good about having a dialogue with fans, Nomura and Kitase feel more old school and neglectful concerning it, so it's little wonder that Mr. "Let's announce and never speak of it again except behind closed doors" Nomura is being a bit tight lipped about KHIII. I mean the man largely ignored KHIII and Versus XIII for ten years, is anyone really surprised that now that he's working on it, he's changed? Technically we've been getting some good info about the game and at least actual gameplay videos, so baby steps in a right direction. In truth, SE has done a better job keeping fans informed in the last five years than they did in the years prior to that, and it's mostly due to younger blood coming in and being put in charge of certain projects.

As for engaging in social media, I don't know, I'd rather have something more substantial. Having SE be like "Happy Anniversary" on Twitter isn't really as important to me as having them announce a new game or a release date for something I'm interested. While I can agree that SE has an odd split personality concerning engaging fans with social media, I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of it has more to do with a generational gap and an interest in new technology. Kitase and Nomura don't strike me as the types to use social media like Kojima or Sakaguchi do, who are both well known for jumping onto new tech trends. SE likely feels they've shown enough and will probably show more at some future event they planned out that won't have to compete with every other game on the market like at E3 or TGS.

[Freya]

For the record, they still haven't updated their KH twitter. lmao

[Fynn]

I mean, I think it's better if you go to youtube and see people losing it over Marluxia's human form being revealed in Union x