FFXIII director says that Squenix is done with large scale in-house productions

[Slothy]

Actually, there is another video out there (phone-quality, sadly) where they are showing off the tools too, and making changes in real time. For example it shows that the beard of the old guy gets all the detail and individual strands through tesselation, and they can change it from straight, curly, fuzzy and even make it look like dreadlocks by just changing a few values with their user interface.

You see, that's the sort of video I want to see of a new engine. Call me skeptical, but anytime all I get is a "real-time trailer" I immediately stop paying attention to anything they're saying. Show me an actual game running on the engine, or show me you manipulating everything in real time. Then I'll buy that what you're showing me is viable. Honestly, when I saw the original video demonstration of UE4 I wasn't too taken with it either because you just can't tell whether that stuff is an accurate representation.

That's true but the real problem in Japan isn't technological based. It is the fact they've stepped back and have adopted a low-risk, high-reward strategy with an implementation where gamers and console gaming is at major lose (low budget mobile/browser games/remaster edition).

True that is a big chunk of their problem in the console market, but technology does tie into it. At this point many companies simply don't have the technical chops to compete with Western companies on next-gen hardware, and the ones that do often perpetuated the trap of building a new engine or every game which is stupidly expensive. Having an engine and tools largely in place for multiple games is a big cost saver making those bigger titles more financially viable. Sure you have to tailor the engine somewhat to work for the game you're making, but it's easier than writing one from scratch.

And it's quite surprising to see Square starting to go down the right path in that regard, because the development of FFXIII and its engine was honestly a disaster as far as software development goes. Seeing them demoing a new engine that seems to actually be going in the right direction just a couple of years after that whole mess is a huge leap from where they were 3 years ago.

[Loony BoB]

You see, that's the sort of video I want to see of a new engine. Call me skeptical, but anytime all I get is a "real-time trailer" I immediately stop paying attention to anything they're saying. Show me an actual game running on the engine, or show me you manipulating everything in real time. Then I'll buy that what you're showing me is viable. Honestly, when I saw the original video demonstration of UE4 I wasn't too taken with it either because you just can't tell whether that stuff is an accurate representation.

Here you go!

[ReloadPsi]

Oh good, maybe they can outsource FF to Sakaguchi and Uematsu.

[ShinGundam]

Oh good, maybe they can outsource FF to Sakaguchi and Uematsu.

Why? Mistwalker is like 4 or 6 people who are most likely project planners. Here we are talking about outsourcing portion of game or creating different assets and maps to make sure the project will meet deadlines.

Hint: Forget Sakaguchi.

[Rostum]

It probably has to do with Square Enix paying their employees triple the salary of any other company. Every company outsources more than ever these days, it's cheap and the quality is just as good especially for art.

Also the demonstration of the Luminous Engine directly hooking up with Maya in real-time is absolutely amazing, I'm not sure if UE4 does it or not but at least for an artist that kind of efficient pipeline is incredibly valuable.