Games Thirst – Amazing Life
Phil Rogers, the newly appointed CEO of Square Enix’s American and European branches, was charged with “looking after [Square Enix’s] studio and publishing businesses” in those two territories. In a letter posted on Square Enix’s blog, Rogers spoke to his customers directly, highlighting the company hasn’t done a good job of communicating its strategy as it deals with an industry that is rapidly changing and evolving.
“First and foremost, we are a games company and today we devote most of our time and effort into developing new and rich gameplay experiences, worlds and characters,” he said. “At the same time new business models have risen up, which we periodically will try to explore.
I know this can be frustrating for some long-time fans of our games, particularly if it seems that we’re heading in unfamiliar directions without much in the way of explanation. Explaining our approach to these opportunities is something we’re working to improve on. That said, we need to experiment and adapt or it’s likely we won’t always be in a position to keep investing in the ways we need, to build-out our games and offer excellence to you, our gamers.
I can categorically say that we’re not abandoning core, triple-A console and PC games. We’re working hard at improving how we develop our games and how we release them.”
Titles like Final Fantasy XV, Kingdom Hearts III, the new Thief and the next-gen Tomb Raider sequel are but a few examples of how Square Enix is listening to the core gamers. But Square Enix is also betting on “new cutting-edge tablet and mobile games”, photographing Deus Ex: The Fall, essentially.
Will this change pay off? Do you mind tablet/smartphone games as long as you get your triple-A console/PC treatment?
