... that acquiring Eidos doesn't seem to have been a bad choice from them. I am not fond of numbers, but Deus Ex and Tomb Raider seem to have done very well and things don't look bleak for the future for those franchises. Of course, it will be a matter of getting back what they got from the inversion but I am not fond of numbers to check that out.

What do you think? Do we cut some slack on Square for this one?

They have managed Eidos well, I will certainly give them credit for that, though we will see what happens when they come to release sequels to these games. They do seem to be organising their studios well at least and investing in expansion, namely Square Enix Montreal

Anyway, they have produced quality games recently, but this does not excuse the complete lack of high quality output from Japan. What kind of studio turns up to the PS4 announcement to say "please be excited for our future announcement." Their Japanese studios are living on borrowed time, they better start producing high quality proper FF (and other) games on reasonable time schedules

I like the FF XIII series, but they just don't seem to get that people want more traditional RPGs and nobody cares about Lightning. They just need better communication I think, they announce so many things then don't really talk about them. Personally, I am excited about Versus, Type 0 and FFX HD but we aren't really getting any info on any of them.

The fans are still excited about their games, just on their name, but that won't last if they don't get their act together with their jRPGs

for how much did they buy eidos?
and yeah, its seems that dues Ex did good. and tomb raider is doing really good to. hopefully they will take good care of tomb raider and make the next game even better. if they take care of this franchise i can see it being a big hit in the future and a real money maker for them

Taken from Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eidos_Interactive#Part_of_Square_Enix_Europe

£84.3 million

certainly worth the money then. 

How could you forget about SLEEPING DOGS? :(

Considered that Sony paid 380 million USD for Gaikai...this is cheap. Sony should go buy a mid size publisher and all their properties if PS4 does well. Buying up these guys are only way to ensure output and exclusivity to your system. I think Sony learned there is no such thing as loyalty this gen. I think they will purchase other studios as soon as they recoup on PS4.

Gotta leave something for you guys to mention. :P

That was a good decision for them since Tomb Raider is selling pretty well and Deus Ex sold decently but I don't really care about those games, so that decision doesn't affect me

People don't want traditional RPGs, though.  Those barely sell.  Just looking at the numbers, it's clear that most of the people who buy Final Fantasy games are not RPG fans at all.  Why they buy Final Fantasy, I have no idea.  I think many of them just want a dude with spiked hair and a giant sword so they can go, "oh, that's BADASS, bro!"  Lightening is pretty badass, as those things go, but she's also a girl, so she's not going to be as popular in the west with some of those people.

The reality is that Final Fantasy has probably lived too long.  At this point, the entire audience will never be satisfied.  You have some people who want a traditional RPG, you have the people who don't really like RPGs and go on about the genre and gameplay being stale but still buy anything in the main FF series.  You even have people who buy it because it's pretty.

People who would never buy a Final Fantasy game if it didn't have "Final Fantasy" written on it buy the damn thing and then complain about it.  It's almost hilarious to see it repeated over and over.  I still remember all the complaining about FFX and now it's regarded as a classic.

There really is nothing Square can do except retire the Final Fantasy name, which they won't.  I can't blame them, either, because of those people I mentioned who are only customers because of the title.