Mr Khan said:
mrstickball said:
Oh, I don't disagree. The only thing right that Square has done recently is buy Edios which seems to be having a string of good games (Batman: Arkham Asylum being one of them with Deus Ex: Human Revolution coming as another).
They've kind of crapped out when it comes to internal priorities: Their focus seems to be on anything and everything but their significant IPs that could help their bottom line. You have many Final Fantasies coming out (but none are major sans vsXIII and that comes out God-knows-when), no mention of KH3 which is likely to sell 5 million copies plus, Dragon Quest for Wii which is likely going to be a historically poor seller given the install bases out there (why they didn't go with another DS/3ds iteration is beyond me, although I guess one can understand it if they greenlit it ~3 years ago).
All the while, Square has so many unbelievable IPs ripe for Virtual Console and HD remakes. Instead, we get Crystal Defenders.
- Why not release the Terranigma series on VC/iOS?
- Why not release the classic Dragon Quest games on VC/iOS?
- Can't they revisit some of their old Squaresoft/Enix IPs to port like Live-a-Live, Bahaumut Lagoon, or the many other games that never came to NA?
- Where is Square's Android presence? ROMs have grossed millions of dollars likely due to Square-Enix IPs, why not cash in on them?
- What about Yosumin on phones? Or the Final Fantasy IV collection? Final Fantasy III DS is a hit and has sold about 75,000 copies in two months, what about more ports of the other Final Fantasies?
- Why not publish a new 2D epic RPG for smartphones? You have ~300 million users dying for a real JRPG. Its ripe for a multi-million seller (Infinity Blade is the 3rd highest-grossing game of all time and it'd pale in comparison to a serious 30hr JRPG effort by Square)
- More DS/PSP/3DS/NGP games are likely do be big bucks - not console games (as proven by their sheer lack of success late).
And so on. Those are just a few lost-cost high-turnaround ideas. Really, Edios should stick to console while Square works on a lot of handheld/phone efforts, with the occassional massive IP like KH3, DQ10, FFXV and so on.
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Here we disagree on a few points. I've heard that Eidos is a money-sink and that SE's acquisition didn't change that. Equally i think Dragon Quest X is going to do well, given Nintendo's commitment to cross-promoting overseas. Dragon Quest is such that the userbase will come to it, and while home consoles are weaker in Japan now (and the Wii has lost relevance there), the existing base will indeed expand in Japan even in 2012 based on that game alone, and it'll put up decent enough results in the West, again due to Nintendo's commitment
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I'm sure the upfront costs of the merger were costly, but I think its a longer-term benefit for SE, as they can now make games that appeal to a western audience outside of their major tentpole IPs like Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts.
I am sure DQX will do well - but I don't see it doing DQIX well. Your putting the largest JRPG on a console that has (not trying to be a fanboy here) been a rather weak console for JRPG successes, and had many failures. I just don't see it hitting 5m and may struggle to 4.5m on the Wii, whilst a 3DS/DS release may have likely earned more copies sold an more revenue due to a lower production budget. Furthermore, Dragon Quest is generally shunned in the west (much to my dismay, I love the series since Dragon Warrior on NES), so even if Nintendo promotes it here, it will have little effect as DQVIII has been the largest American success of the series with a paltry 630,000 units sold, with IX selling under 500,000. I don't see how the Wii version can sell over 500,000 units here given the user base.
