SE: All our games will go online

[Max Payne]

http://blogs.forbes.com/velocity/201...ill-go-online/

For the most part, the famous "Final Fantasy" series of video games has been a single-player experience. You level up your characters to fight bigger and badder bad guys, as you progress through the storyline. It's like reading a book; you do it on your own.

That could change soon. Square Enix's chief executive Yoichi Wada sat down with Forbes at the E3 videogame conference in Los Angeles last week to talk about the big changes he has in store for the company.

"In all of the games we will be releasing going forward, some kind of multiplayer element will be incorporated one way or another," says Wada.

While the company's line-up of games goes beyond "Final Fantasy," this still represents a radical shift for Square Enix. Clarifying his point, Wada says this doesn't mean that all games will be fully online experiences.

"It is not as if all the [all of our] game creators will become capable of creating MMORPG-type games," he says. "What we will encourage them to do is to incorporate some kind of multiplayer element even in single player games."

As if that won't shake things up enough, Wada intends to bring in "fresh blood" and "change the culture" of Square Enix. See the full story in the article published on Forbes.com Wednesday to find out how.

herpin derp

 

[Makoeyes987]

This actually sounds like a good plan, so long as it isn't a tacked on gimmicky online multiplayer addition in the vein of KH: 358/2 or Birth by Sleep.

...Oops, I forgot who we were dealing with! Sorry!

 

[Alessa Gillespie]

considering how difficult to play something like FFXI was I certainly hope that their shit has improved.

 

[Max Payne]

This actually sounds like a good plan, so long as it isn't a tacked on gimmicky online multiplayer addition in the vein of KH: 358/2 or Birth by Sleep.

...Oops, I forgot who we were dealing with! Sorry!

these people couldn't handle towns ffs

 

[DrakeClawfang]

I heard there's the one Zelda game thats intended for 4 players, but one player can play alone if needed. If thats what they have in mind, I don't mind this.

 

[Alessa Gillespie]

personally I hated Four Swords. It was little more than a bonus for buying Link to the Past.

 

[null]

The plot derpens:

The old model of a traditional game maker like Electronic Arts ( ERTS - news - people ) is passing, Wada says. He is now seeking to emulate the high profit margins of online game companies from China and South Korea, such as Tencent or NCSoft, which make money from selling virtual items in their free-to-play games. Such a move would take Square Enix in a very different direction. For a "Final Fantasy" game, you pay a high upfront cost to get access to a very polished title with Hollywood-level production values and storyline. A typical online game from Tencent doesn't have that same level of production value but is free to play.

"What is polished is in the eye of the beholder," Wada says. "Our games' graphics are very polished, but Tencent is actually very polished in terms of the experience."

Wada sees digital distribution as a more direct channel of communication between the company and its customers, compared with selling boxed videogames in brick-and-mortar stores, as well as a different way to monetize games. For example, instead of selling a complete "Final Fantasy" title for $60 or $70, Wada says the game could be broken into separate chapters and sold in pieces for $5 each.

I fucking hate the chapter model.

 

[Strangelove]

I like boxed video games in bricks-and-mortar shops and paying all at once and not having everything being online.

I don't like Wada

 

[Makoeyes987]

OH YES DO IT! DO IT S-E!!

JUST KILL YOURSELF! KILL YOURSELF BY CHARGING PEOPLE MONEY FOR BULLSHIT THEY CAN'T EVEN OWN AND TO PLAY A GAME THEY ALREADY BOUGHT!

THATS THE TICKET!

Oh God, its like someone lobotomized S-E while they weren't looking.

 

[null]

Now we can wait a month for every hour long piece of the game, just like FF4 After Years! (Good thing it sucked so I could stop buying chapters)

 

[Strangelove]

"Frankly, the people who excelled at creating game software about 10 years ago are really not good at making multiplayer games,"

Then maybe you should let them keep making the games they're good at making and stop trying to make everything into an MMORPG or some shit.

I'm going to go back to not bothering to listen to Wada.

 

[Makoeyes987]

I'm just sitting on my lawnchair with my six pack, watching the S-E airship go up in flames and crash into the ground in a blazing inferno of fail. It's a spectacular show I'll tell you what.

While other developers get what it takes to make RPGs and engaging games for this generation, S-E is flailing around, looking at of all places...CHINA. CHINA!

The real reason S-E likes how China does things is because they've been copying them and feeding their bullshit back at them.

 

[null]

Highly polished single player games? They're soooo ten years ago. No one would be caught dead playing games like Mass Effect in this day and age.

 

[Cat Rage Room]

Wow. This is sad.

 

[Strangelove]

Highly polished single player games? They're soooo ten years ago. No one would be caught dead playing games like Mass Effect in this day and age.

That's because they didn't split it up enough.

2 games is too much for today's gamers to handle. It's got to be 15 fun-sized games you have to keep buying and downloading every month. Or couple of months since this is Square, they aren't that good at releasing stuff when they say they will.

 

[Dark and Divine]

Wow. This is sad.

There's nothing else to say, really.

 

[Max Payne]

and to think, I was thinking versus 13 would be awesome with 4 player co-op.

HERPEN DURF

 

[Lord Noctis]

Oh how the mighty have fallen.

 

[Super Mario]

It's more like a desperate attack. They need not make such daring moves. instead they should just ... make something as awesome as FFXII...seriously. they should.

 

[Joker]

and to think, I was thinking versus 13 would be awesome with 4 player co-op.

HERPEN DURF

Shit like THIS would be amazing - imagine FFX, or Tactics, with multiplayer.

HAVE YOU FUCKING SHIT YOURSELF FROM THE AWESOMENESS YET?

A game (RPG) that you could play as an immersing single-player experience that allows you the option of playing the same game with other people, but that also has multiplayer-only content (like a bonus dungeon that you can only play with other people), would be fucking fantastic.

I would buy copies for all of my friends that I play with, I shit you not. (as long as the game itself is good)

 

[ForceStealer]

I don't like Wada

I have never liked Wada. I seriously have hated every single thing that has ever come out of his mouth.

 

[Max Payne]

Shit like THIS would be amazing - imagine FFX, or Tactics, with multiplayer.

Dude, it has been one of my longtime dreams to have an FF7 remake with DMC like combat and 3 player co-op. The fact that such a thing would make many fans shit themselves make it all the more delicious.

 

[Tetsujin]

Wada is an asshole.

 

[Ghost X]

The only thing that makes me happy is 'fresh blood', which is what I've been arguing SE needed for years. Whether the fresh blood takes it in the right direction, who knows. From the sounds of people replying in this thread, it is unlikely =P.

 

[Ite]

But is it so wrong to just want a Final Fantasy game? I feel like there hasn't been one for almost a decade. I just want a long, easy game-novel thing that tells a great story and looks real pretty. A game where I don't have to worry about hand-eye coordination, I just need some rudimentary strategic skills and a high tolerance for busy work. That's fine, I can deal with that. I just want a game that doesn't have shoddy, distracting voice acting, doesn't insult my intelligence, isn't an otaku-explosion and doesn't have a calamitous cast of whiny, hyper, shitty characters.

There is still a market for this kind of game. Why do video game companies think that there magically isn't anymore? That people can't read and/or need subtitles in the same language as the voice-overs? That high-octane means fast button-mashing? I don't need that. I just want a Final Fantasy game.