Square Enix President Proposes "Japan Gaming Alliance"
Alliance would allow Japanese companies to compete with western developers, Wada says
It's no secret that, outside of a select few publishers, Japanese game development has lagged a bit behind the west. Now Square Enix president Yoichi Wada thinks he might have the answer.
Kotaku is reporting that Wada told Nikkei Business in an article about the Japanese gaming "crisis" that Japanese developers should form "an alliance" to help close the gap with western developers. Wada cited Tecmo and Koei as a prime example, suggesting that "alliance" actually means "merger."
But Wada went on to stress the need to maintain the individuality of Japanese developers.
"It's not forcing everything into a single corporate brand," Wada said. "The ideal is a holding company under which several companies and brands can hang."
These words echo Square Enix's merger proposal to Tecmo, in which they also promised to let the company maintain a level of autonomy. Tecmo went elsewhere, but that doesn't mean that Square Enix isn't still looking to make a deal. Don't be surprised if even more Square Enix merger rumors start to pop up in 2009.
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