You realize these JRPGs like Ultimate Fantasy and Dragon Quest that Sq. Enix is fairly well-known for making, particularly because it offered off a complete bunch of its different IPs and the studios that work on them? Nicely, the writer doesn’t need to should depend on them as a lot going forwards.
It’s an concept that makes loads of sense in a vacuum, however appears slightly bit hilarious given the entire ditching of the likes of Tomb Raider and Deus Ex that Sq. executed in Might 2022, when it offered Crystal Dynamics, Eidos Montreal, and Sq. Enix Montreal to Embracer Group. However, hey, there are different video games on the market that the writer might use to assist develop its repertoire.
This want to turn out to be much less depending on the present large sequence Sq. Enix has at its disposal was outlined by firm president Takashi Kiryu within the Q and A piece of a November 2023 monetary briefing that was solely printed not too long ago (thanks, GamesRadar). In it, Kiryu (not that one) cites two areas wherein he believes Sq. “to be missing”, with the primary of those being “the restricted variety of our title portfolio”.
“As a result of we possess sturdy IPs just like the Dragon Quest and Ultimate Fantasy franchises, I consider that we’ve tended to be overly reliant on sure gameplay kinds or genres,” the president stated. “In the meantime, the tastes of shoppers within the gaming market have diversified, and prospects have come to get pleasure from content material from a wide range of genres.”
So, what’s it that’s prompted Kiryu to take discover of the untapped potential that may lie in devoting extra consideration to non-blockbuster titles. It’s FuturLab’s PowerWash Simulator, due to course it’s.
In line with the president, PowerWash Sim “is considerably of an outlier in our portfolio in that it’s a sport effectively suited to informal play, however we’ve been in a position to steadily construct up our earnings from it.”
So, with that in thoughts, he needs to “enhance our growth proficiency by strengthening our inside growth capabilities, in order that we’re in a position to obtain larger variety in our title portfolio.” That sounds prefer it might probably be hinting at Sq. itself having a go at growing extra video games which may not match its typical MO, however have the prospect to pop off just like the third-party cleansing expertise has.
Whereas this would possibly nonetheless really feel a bit bizarre after Sq. seemingly gave up on a number of established earners – even when it did present some justification for making that transfer – with that Embracer deal, it’s not less than preferable to the writer placing extra funding into NFT and/or metaverse-themed video games/platforms which will or might not include Snoop Dogg.
In different current Ultimate Fantasy-related information, FF 14 and 16 producer Naoki Yoshida thinks a youthful group ought to probably take the lead on Ultimate Fantasy 17’s growth.