Square Enix's "Media Mix" Strategy

How do you feel about SEs approach to making a game these days? The "Media Mix" strategy is nothing new for SE, or a lot of media companies. Look at Disney or Nintendo with Pokemon. The FFVII compilation and now FFXV have really embraced it.

But is it a good thing? Sure, it can help the company financially, but should the audience have to turn to multiple suplementary media to get the full picture, rather than it being part of a self contained game?

I've always thought it was fucking stupid tbh. Ever since I heard of Ultimanias. It just comes across as a cash grab.

I mean, I love the Hobbit films, and I bought the weta workshop books, but that was giving me something different - behind the scenes shit I wouldn't have access to. But when it comes to plot details.... I think it's a rip off. You should be able to enjoy the game and its story for what it is.

So yeah, artbooks are ok. But if you can't tell the story in the game itself, I think it's a failure.

Depends on how hard it is to get a hold of the other non-game media. FFVII compilation is actually really bad on this front. OTWTAS is arguably the best non-game material in the compilation and it still doesn't have an offical English translation for the whole thing. Same with BC (not that it's an important entry, but still).

FFXV has done a much better job so far. The Anime is officially going up on YouTube with English subtitles to boot. The movie is getting an offical release. The demos are available for free on both platforms the game is being released on. Even the phone game is easy to get. SE is very up-front about what's in the expanded FFXV universe and is making easy for everyone (not just the Japanese audience) to get in on it.

Also, the game was made with all these spin-offs in mind. It's not like the Compilation of FFVII where unplanned titles just kept coming out and the fans have had to do a lot of work to get at them. Overall, the implementation of the expanded FFXV universe is leaving a lot better taste in my mouth then the implementation of the Compilation of FFVII did.

Yea if we can get a hold of it a lot easier I'd say it's fine. Also the anime is for free off of Youtube, and the movie really isn't gonna cost too much.

I also recall they said you don't need to go and watch this to get the enjoyment out of the story. It's extra for the fans that are dying for something from this game.

(Halo however took this in a completely wrong and different way, but that's a whole other argument thread).

I'm the kind of person who really likes these kind of things that SE is doing with FFXV. When I'm excited about a media product the more I can get the better. As long as there is a certain quality to the additional products of course. I don't like it when a franchise keeps going as long as there is money to be made out of it.

In the case of XV I like the approach that you get additional media products before you even get the actual product. Personally I haven't really seen that happening before. As a fan I think it's a nice way to get to know the characters and their story a bit before you get to the main meal. But as it has been said, it doesn't seem like you actually need to be aware of the content in those products to enjoy the actual game.

I have to admit that I would be a lot less hyped about the XV products if all the anime, movie and demo would cost something, because then it would feel very much like they just want to make more money out of it. Sure they will benefit financially from all of it, but giving most of it for free makes me feel like there is a story that they want to give to the fans. And even if you're not yet a fan, why not take a look at all the other stuff when most of it is free and easy to get. It's clearly a way to market the game and to boost the sales, but I also feel really greatful as a fan to get so much more than you usually would at this point.

I like a good series but I've never liked it when it's a mixed media bag if being a mixed media bag makes the story suffer.

Such as, the main story being hyped should be enjoyable from start to finish WITHOUT needing to see the supplemental material. No saving important plot points for short stories or guide books.

All supplemental materials should contain content that enhances the story, but is not required in order to understand the main plot arc of the main entry (or entries) of the franchise.

Also, as Engineer said, how easily one can obtain all the pieces also comes into play. Important chunks of the FFVII compilation are not easy to come by. Important story elements are delegated to Ultimanias that are never released in English let alone outside of Japan.

Or Kingdom Hearts. Yes SE did decide to combine them more recently but back in the day that wasn't the case. You had to buy a PS2, a GBA, and DS, a PSP, and a phone that could play games back when most people still didn't have them. Don't do that.

The FFXV continuity makes me think that SE is learning.

I feel that the multimedia strategy is a double-edged sword; it can be a good thing, and it can be a bad thing.

I think in the case of FFXV, it's definitely a good thing. I think SE has learned their lesson from the compilation of VII and is really trying to put their best foot forward with this project. Making the anime, film, and demos free is a risky move, but I think it will ultimately benefit them in the end.

Octo brought up some good points about supplementary materials, which enhance your knowledge rather than tell more of the story. The Ultimanias have been pissing me off for years; we have these Japanese-only texts with details in them that elaborate more on places and characters (which was definitely the case with FFXII) that we would never know otherwise. If the important points of the cannot be relayed in the game then I'd rather it be left to the imagination.

It just makes me think of the TV show Agents of Shield within the Marvel Cinematic Universe. After I saw Age of Ultron, I read somewhere that there were things in the movie that the TV show clarified and expounded upon, which even though I had no trouble understanding anything, I thought it was complete bullshit because I don't want to have to watch a TV show in order to understand a movie.

But like I said, I think SE made the right call with XV. Like Tenny said, they're definitely learning from past mistakes.

I'm wondering what type of material they're going to do with the remake, because since this was such a huge success, you know they're going to try it again.

Just to clarify, nothing was said about the movie being free and I would be surprised if it was.

After I saw Age of Ultron, I read somewhere that there were things in the movie that the TV show clarified and expounded upon, which even though I had no trouble understanding anything, I thought it was complete bullshit because I don't want to have to watch a TV show in order to understand a movie.

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And you don't; the tv show just does things to tie-in to the Marvel movies, but the movies are not written with the tv series in mind. In this particular case, it wasn't important to the movie and was unnecessary even for the show's arc

Obsidian and Tenny said everything I feel about this topic.

Speaking of this expanded universe for FFXV, would anyone who knows more about it than I do be kind enough to link me to something that lists all of it? I've been too busy to make time for FFXV news for a while now.

EDIT: Nvm, looked at the front page. Thanks.

My original long reply got lost. Generally, I agree that mixed media is fine as long as the works are self contained. The likes of The Force Awaken annoyed me a little by necessary details being left to supplementary material, though.

It looks like Square are going all in on this. I'm not going to be able to play the game when it comes out as I've no PS4, so I'll be living vicariously through you all. Is there any particular order to view the XV Compilation?

Is anyone else bugged by the game's naming conventions? They seem kind of like line of sight names Latinised. Moon. Night. Fire. King. Sword.

I don't mind the multimedia approach, as long as they're all self-contained. I think other people have basically said that already. Whether it was a wise decision to do so in an expensive way, is another issue. If it is true, that is, that they must sell 10 million units. That would make it on par (depending on the figures one reads) with the most successful FF game, being FFVII. I just don't see it happening somehow.

I like expanded universe in general. I've always thought that novels were the way to go, I enjoyed the VII and XIII novels because you didn't really need them, but they helped fill in different points and expand characters.

I suppose it's all about quality. VII was shit in that regard, quality control was all over the place, and unlike XV which was designed with multimedia in mind, VII was a stand alone title that wasn't built upon until years after.

But I have a feeling that the multimedia thing is a trend going on in general. I've been keeping up with the anime charts as the disgusting weeb I am, and lately I feel like I've been seeing a lot of the "this anime is part of a multimedia project" pop up a lot (usually the trifecta of an anime and game and manga), many times the quality is merhurg and none are as expensive as FFXV.

I mean, Advent Children was a mild success within the fandom but Spirits Within nearly tanked them. And Advent Children didn't have Sean Fucking Bean. I do get worried whenever I see cgi movies pop out of games (ie Resident Evil and Tekken) because they aren't normally good (except for the second RE one) and can fuck them over if they aren't paying attention to their budget.

Also, I don't want a terrible cgi movie to be the thing that brings over big names like SEAN BEAN to games, we already have a bad rap.

But going back to the quality again, I feel like outside of the novels, which are almost always interesting because it's usually plain character development, everything else has been inconsistent. The XII manga was boring and ugly, and the Type-0 manga, as elusive as it is, is absolute horseshit, why would they even bother? I don't think I watched FFV's anime sequel so I can't comment on it. Spin off games are usually soulless, and it takes a prayer and a miracle to make them good, I liked CC, but BC was apparently bad and DoC is horrible. I hear bad things about After Years, and XIII's trilogy got mixed reviews (even if I liked them). XII's sequel is a bit hard to talk about because well, I didn't play it but it also is part of a larger franchise.

Other games are doing the multimedia thing too. And 99.9% of anime adaptations of games are absolute crap, I fear for the new Ace Attorney coming out this season. I feel like the best parallel would be maybe the Resident Evil cgi movies or the Tales of Vesperia movies, Vesperia movie apparently was great but I don't think the RE movies did anything really, even though the second one was actually bearable.

As far as the Ultimania goes, I'm fine with it. We don't get databooks in the US either, and I think it really is a Japanese specific phenomena, and just wish they would publish it in the US. The only thing it does is encourage people to rip out the pages to scan it, and overwork the fandom translators. :/

Splintered said:

I don't think I watched FFV's anime sequel so I can't comment on it.

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Trippy as balls. Enjoyable in that regard but otherwise has very little to do with FFV.
Ryu and I exposing it to Tenny may well be my favorite of our TLS commentaries

I'm playing XII right now loving the hell out of it, and it's sequel looks like absolute trash. I don't know the story but the cover art makes it feel like a game for little kids, which is not what XII is. Also the combat looks like it's out of a phone game, but I guess that can't be helped because it was on the DS.

ForceStealer said:

Splintered said:

I don't think I watched FFV's anime sequel so I can't comment on it.

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Trippy as balls. Enjoyable in that regard but otherwise has very little to do with FFV.
Ryu and I exposing it to Tenny may well be my favorite of our TLS commentaries

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I completely forgot that this was a thing that actually happened. Wow.

ForceStealer said:

Ryu and I exposing it to Tenny may well be my favorite of our TLS commentaries

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Ryu and I exposing it to Tenny may well be my favorite

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Ryu and I exposing it to Tenny

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Was that the thing where the Chocobos looked like Pteradactyls that had been in a chip pan fire?

I really liked AC and the concept thereof, it got me into this slice of internets and shit.

But, I'll admit I never got into the other FFVII related stuff, not the other games, anime, etc. I doubt I will for this, I'm not into XV at all right now, it's just TL;DR and shit. But that's probably just me, I'm not easy to get hyped, especially not when it involves spending monies,

^The FF XV Brotherhood anime is free, Yop.

Did you really think I paid monies for AC and that one anime or CC and shit when I watched / played them?

okay so I do have an AC dvd somewhere, but I doubt I ever watched it on there.

This seemed like the most appropriate thread to post this news in (since I didn’t think it warranted it’s own) but this is depressing.

And like I know gaudy/cringey marketing campaigns for Final Fantasy and other SE properties is nothing new (like the ad campaigns for Butterfingers, Pepsi, Coca-Cola, Pizza Hut, Cup Noodles, etc.). But NFTs are inherently just so so shitty, that this “hurts” way more than any of those former things.

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What's an NFT?

Odysseus said:

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What's an NFT?

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Here’s an NPR article about them https://www.npr.org/2021/03/05/974089381/whats-an-nft-and-why-are-people-paying-millions-to-buy-them

And a slightly more simplified irreverent explanation here

I think this is the stupidest thing I've ever heard of. That's not a joke. I now want to use several slurs to describe it but I'll refrain.