Square Enix announces cloud gaming service 'Shinra Technologies'

[Tetsujin]

Beta service for Shinra Technologies is slated to begin in the United States sometime in 2015.

Source: http://www.polygon.com/2014/9/18/6456117/square-enix-shinra-technologies-cloud-gaming-yoichi-wada

Homepage: https://www.shinra.com/us

How do you make a Cloud-based service, name it after something from FFVII and then not have the name relate to motherfucking Cloud you twatcrumpets?

 

[LicoriceAllsorts]

In a curious twist, the once-fictional Shinra Corporation became a real-life multinational company incorporated in the Virgin Islands. It started out trading in cheap, low-quality Japanese video games made for cell-phones and social media platforms, bought a video-blogging service at the very moment when a critical mass of youtubers were looking to migrate to a new platform, grew to rival Netflix, and ultimately acquired rights to all the Disney Princesses in a hostile takeover. The End.

PS So it's a Cloud gaming company? Bet Rufus plans to change that name real quick once he owns the entire Internet.

 

[Kai Schulen]

In before someone decides to summons a giant meteor to wipe out all life on Earth and uses our dead planet to sail throughout space.<_<;;

 

[Umatbru]

Oh Squeenix

 

[Shademp]

So THAT is what the Shinra trademark thingy was about. Or at least that's what it looks like in retrospect.

Currently looking through the website and halfway through it I'm sensing that the name "Shinra Technologies" exists solely for name recognition, but nothing about the website or the service they promise gives me "Shinra" vibes. I would have preferred a different name because of how grounded Shinra is in the FFVII world and aesthetic.

 

[Wolfhart]

The new company has partnered with Just Cause developer Avalanche Studios

Shinra and Avalanche?

 

[LicoriceAllsorts]

It just keeps getting better. All they need now is for Jenova Chen to come on board.

 

[Cthulhu]

So... what exactly is it? I'm seeing something in between just streaming games and running full-scale multi-user simulations (actually, a single shared rendered world with multiple cameras streaming their POV to individual players would be a very interesting thing to see)

 

[ForceStealer]

How do you make a Cloud-based service, name it after something from FFVII and then not have the name relate to motherfucking Cloud you twatcrumpets?

I believe some commenter on kotaku had a good solution.

"The advertising writes itself: The Cloud, without all the Strife."

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

A Cloud-based service? You mean this guy?:

 

[Shademp]

Strife Service Technologies: Brought to you through the partnership of Fenrir- and Ragnarok Industries.

 

[Tennyo]

twatcrumpets

New favorite word

 

[Strangelove]

http://www.polygon.com/2016/1/5/10720404/square-enix-shutting-down-shinra-technologies-cloud-gaming

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[Shademp]

Nothing of value was lost...except for some money and jobs.

 

[Strangelove]

tbh i'm can't figure out what, if anything, compuglobalhypermeganet actually did

 

[Lex]

I didn't even know this existed until now. I vaguely remember reading Tets's post way back when it was posted.

This is good because it's the last vestige of Wada's failed ventures as head of the company (probably not his fault, but as time goes by I'm beginning to understand more and more that Wada not heading the company is a happy and amazing thing).

This is bad because I was hoping we wouldn't be hearing about any more "extraordinary losses" for SE, the last being the original FFXIV. Financially, how are they still afloat after this many massive losses? Say what you want about the FF franchise currently, but I don't want it to die yet, I'm not ready. I know that's not happening but I'd just rather see SE do well. Even if you don't like FF, they own so many studios now (Eidos and the Deus Ex franchise being my favourite "other" under their umbrella).

 

[Tetsujin]

Extraordinary loss doesn't mean massive loss, it just means it's a loss that doesn't happen often.

 

[Tennyo]

I sometimes feel bad for Wada.

Like, he doesn't seem like a bad person, he was just not a very good CEO.

 

[Strangelove]

Yeah, in financial terms 'extraordinary' means it wasn't a loss they were expecting to take but doesn't necessarily it has a grave impact on the overall standing of the company. Obviously you don't want a loss if you can avoid it, but it doesn't necessarily mean it's going to hurt their financial in a fatal way.

(Although I am wondering if there is a link between this and square's recent spate of shutting down service for a number of their mobile titles.)

Was Shinra Tech involved in stuff like the streaming FFXIII for smartphones/tablets?

 

[Tashasaurous]

I found this out yesterday, and really, I'm surprised that it didn't last long. Then again, no one's heard anything much on how the cloud service actually works.

Still, it's still a hard hit, and talk about, Ouch.

I do not believe this will be the end of the Final Fantasy franchise, though. They'll probably have to cancel one or two expensive games and sell them or whatever to pay off the morge. (I don't mean FFXV, FFVIIR or KH3, those are too important).

If the Company's lucky, maybe the hopeful success of FFXV will help them a little bit with the fiancel losses that's happening now that Shinra Tech is thrown out of the window. (Funny how the FFVII's ShinRa Company survived for years, and yet the real Shinra Company closes down in less than a year after it's opening.)

 

[Channy]

Maybe if they actually released any of their IOS games overseas they could have profitted from this.