Oh wow this is the new CEO trying to show he has grit. WHEN ARE YOU FIRING THE JAPANESE DEVELOPERS who s**t out crappy games or let them drown in limbo for years and years. Flush out the senior development staff and let the new blood control development on upcoming Final Fantasy games. Give the western dev (Crystal Dynamic, Eidos Montreal, etc.) some breathing room cause they're the only part of the company that anyone is looking forward to seeing games from.
When there's new senior/executive management coming in to a company, especially a new CEO, it's pretty much guaranteed restructuring no matter what industry you're in. This is not surprising, and most likely the people that were let go were not that important to the company's overall strategy.
"... and so I close, realizing that perhaps the ending has not yet been written."
Not sure how aware you were of this, but Eidos / Crystal Dynamics answered only to Wada and as far as I know were given all the breathing space they desired. When they bought the developers the management team was, I believe, pretty much untouched. If anything, they were better off - I mean, if you look at the games Eidos/Crystal Dynamics have produced since the takeover, they've been far better than the games they produced shortly before the takeover.Originally Posted by nirojan
The only problems they have had seem to be...
1) expectations of sales of any products
2) development times, perhaps just in Japan for this but it's hard to say
3) recent FF titles not being rated as highly as previous ones, most notably FFXIV at release
Might be wrong, but I think that covers the main problems that they'll be looking at in the long term. I doubt they will be idiots about such things.
Bow before the mighty Javoo!
Apparently metacritic is to blame for their over estimation.
http://www.hd.square-enix.com/eng/ne...20130326en.pdf
>>Am willing to change opinions based on data<<
Yeah, I've read that metacritic thing, but I would say them mentioning metacritic is more just a subtle way of them pointing out that poor sales weren't down to poor quality games (as shareholders might have viewed the situation when you consider recent FF titles).
It's clearly a marketing issue and a development cost issue, though.
The most notable thing I saw in that document, though, is that "I am pleased to report that Social Gaming and Others shows solid performance" bit. Didn't they say they will be focusing on what does best for them at SE? This for me is a concern.On the flipside, they also mentioned that the new division to develop casual games for smartphones (in the US) did not go well and that they are shutting it down. Huzzah.
EDIT: Really interesting to read about them not automatically reappointing any of the directors for the first time since Square and Enix merged, and that Phil Rogers (SE Europe, essentially Eidos) is the only person aside from Matsuda specifically named as a potential director.
Bow before the mighty Javoo!
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