SE to Make North America the Center of Online Game Development
by Dark and Divine November 9, 2013 0 commentsIn this week’s roundup: SE to make North America the center of online game development; new character presented for Lightning Returns: FFXIII; FFVI’s fan-made movie trailer; plus the latest from our forum.
SQUARE ENIX to make North America the Center for Online Games Development (VIA Polygon)
Square Enix is making “strategic changes” to its digital entertainment business, which includes turning its North American studios into a hub for online games development, the company revealed in its recently released financial results slides.
The company’s domestic studios across Japan will begin focusing on the production of mobile games, while plans are underway to expand activity primarily in Asia.
Square Enix hopes to transform “the fixed-price model” of online games “into variable earnings models” like the currently under-developent free-to-play titleNosgoth.
The company is also planning on bringing sequels of popular franchises Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy Agito to mobile. The latest Final Fantasy Agito release is slated for this winter while Dragon Quest 10 will arrive on the “d-game” platform as a cloud game for smart devices between December 2013 and February 2014. Release windows for its other titles are still undecided.
Credits go to our member Unlucky for bringing this up to our attention.
It seems that SE hasn’t given up mobile games yet, despite promising to move away from that market only seven months ago. What’s your view on this? Share your opinion in our forum.
New character Presented for Lightning Returns: FFXIII – Bhunivelze
This week, a new scan has surfaced, presenting a new character for Lighting Returns: FFXIII. The character is Bhunivelze, a god in the Fabula Nova Crystallis mythology, and creator of Pulse, Etro and Lindzei. Besides being design-wise fairly awesome, it’s still unknown what his role will in the game’s plot. For anybody interested, the caption next to his picture says:
God of Myth
Bhunivelze
What is the plan of the mythical god, Bhunivelze, the absolute existence who governs the world …?!
Credits go not only to our member Kuja9001 for bringing this to our attention, but also to our member Arianna for providing a better resolution scan and our member TresDias for translating the character’s caption.
What do you think of this new character? Share your thoughts in our forum.
Final Fantasy VI’s Fan-made Movie Trailer(VIA kotaku)
Like the FFVII’s fan-made movie project that surfaced some time ago, a group of fans has joined to create a similar project for Final Fantasy VI. The early result is this trailer, which took the FF fanbase by surprise. Now here’s hoping that this project doesn’t suffer the same fate than the FFVII one.
Ben Pohl, who runs the production company putting this together, says they’re hoping to make it happen, no matter how unlikely it may be. He says he won’t make the same mistake as theFFVI folks and launch a Kickstarter without Square Enix’s permission. But he’s also not going to give up very easily.P
“Getting their blessing is a Hail Mary, I know,” Pohl said. “But I’m too ambitious not to try. And besides, making the trailer was an amazing experience.”P
“So what happens if you don’t get their blessing?” I asked.P
“That’s a great question. I’m honestly not sure. We could continue to go it alone and invest in it ourselves, like we did the trailer. But we finished that yesterday and I’m still decompressing from that experience,” Pohl said. “If there was a way to do it both cheap and good, then maybe.Ideally, the trailer would show Square Enix that we can be trusted to make a quality, high-concept production. That the high-end visuals that FFVI deserves are within our reach.P
“If all that ever happens is this trailer, then I’m happy. This was an absolute hoot to make. From the amazing costume designer, to the professional actors, I had the time of my life.”
Credits go to our member Prince Lex for bringing this to our attention.
What do you think of the trailer and this project as a whole? Share your opinion with us.
MORE FROM THE FORUM
- What if it is actually perfectly justified and logical that Cloud himself has not told Zack’s parents about what happened to their son? Join the debate.
- The novella “FFVII Lateral Biography TURKS The Kids Are Alright” still continues to amaze fans. Join the discussion about this Nojima’s work.
- The LTD War continues. Which side will you join?
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