I agree with a lot of what has already been said, especially about being more honest and not having ridiculous development cycles.


For me, SE's problems really began around the same time when Japanese devs decided to try and tackle the western audience by making "western" games... which for obvious reasons didn't work.


I feel that is a topic in it's own right, so to keep the reply on topic I will say that SE should have faith in making Japanese games and trust they will (hopefully) do well in the western market. While a slight generalisation, people played the original games not because they were like western games, but because they were a type of game that *typically* only came from Japanese devs. Of course this mainly points to their Japan/RPG making studios. Oh, and trusting the fans... I have no idea why they suddenly decided that western gamers didn't understand how to play RPG's and required 20 hours of tutorial driven gameplay.


Also, cut back on the smart phone games, or at least stop producing money grabbing shovelware. Things have gotten better on this front and I appreciate the smart phone market is on fire here, but that doesn't mean you should just not bother putting effort into them.


Regarding FF, I am glad they seems to be on the right track again and while I want to see FFXV, i think FFXVI will be the true work that will show if lessons have been learned.