Pokémon, surely.

I do think that you can compare Square, Enix and SE with WWF, WCW and WWE. Bare with me, here.

When they had each other to compete with, they were in their prime. When one bought the other one out and the competition dwindled as a result, the quality of the one bigger group also dwindled. Others, such as TNA (let's say, whoever made the Tales games) attempted to rise and take on WWE to some extent, but they were never quite at that level. Instead, WWE found itself competing with other similar sports like MMA (WRPGs) and the competitions within them such as UFC (Elder Scrolls) and it's hard to say if there were any real winners once that happened, because they aren't really the same form of entertainment - WWE focuses on adding in story elements, while UFC is all about the gameplay.

I often look back in fondness to the times when WWF and WCW were competing with one another, as I feel the competition really benefited the genre as a whole. I often wonder if things would have been different. Still, despite all that, I am confident that, given time, the future can still lead to good things for WWE. But perhaps the best thing that they could do is sell off parts of their business so they can compete with one another in a less "in-house" manner.

Back to gaming (but did we ever leave that topic? Oh ho ho), I think the best chance of competition SE had was born in Mistwalker and then died when they couldn't get the marketing or investment done right. Mistwalker should have started up as a Kickstarter. I can't take the art style of some other games seriously, in all honesty. Tales in particular. I feel like I'm watching a cartoon and I just lack any form of immersion in the story because of it. Persona can be similar. Ni no Kuni, likewise. I want a game that does things like Final Fantasy and Lost Odyssey do things. The graphical quality mixed with the good gameplay. I mean, I can dig the games with poorer graphics but AAA games can make it that much better if they play their cards right, and I'm sure we all know that by now. Perhaps it'll happen someday.